Runaway Heart
by Li'lsakura98
Summary: Marinette and Adrien get assigned a school project together and afterward, start spending more and more time together, growing closer and closer...
1. Chapter 1

Yay! A new Fan fiction! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug…

"I'm leaving!" I exclaimed as I was coming down the stairs from my room.

"Marinette, wait. I need to talk to you." A short woman with black bobbed hair said, standing next to the wooden dinning table.

"Oh, Maman, I promised to meet up with Alya before school." I replied, my hand already on the handle of the gray door.

"Marinette." Mom's voice was stern, which was very much unlike her. "This is serious. Come here."

I let go of the door handle and walked over to my mother. "What is it?" I asked, taking a seat at our small table. Mom looked down to the floor in thought, then directly into my eyes, her hair framing her face perfectly.

After a while of an awkward silence, she finally spoke. "Where did you go last night?" This question, although I was expecting it sooner or later, caught me off guard.

"W-what do you mean?" I replied, trying to play innocent.

"Marinette, tell me. I won't get mad." Mom placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled gently. "I was a teenage girl once too, after all. Now, tell me, did you sneak out to see a boy? Adrien, perhaps?"

"M-maman!" I exclaimed, jumping out of my chair, my face burning.

She laughed.

"Judging by that reaction, it wasn't Adrien!" She said.

"I'm leaving!" I said quickly grabbing my bag and walking back over to the door.

"Marinette, we aren't done talking about this."

"I'm sorry, I won't do it again. I just needed to go for a walk is all." I turned the handle of the door.

"Then why didn't you leave through the front door?" I opened the door and walked out.

"I didn't want to wake you, bye!" I quickly closed the door and let out a sigh.

"That was close!" Tikki said, sticking her little head out from my purse.

"Yeah, no kidding." I replied, walking down the stairs.

"But, going for a walk at eleven o'clock at night? Is that even practical?"

"Well, what was I supposed to tell her, Tikki? 'Oh, yeah I was out because I'm Paris's number one superhero and I was on patrol with my cat sidekick?' I don't think that would go over too well." Tikki giggled.

"Yeah, you're right!"

I opened the front door and immediately felt a chilly wind brush against my face. I shivered a little.

"Winter is definitely coming soon, huh?" I said. I took a step onto the sidewalk and began to walk to the school. Luckily for me, I lived incredibly close to the school. As I approached the main entrance I saw Alya waiting by the stairs.

"Alya!" I exclaimed. She turned to me.

"Where have you been? I thought we agreed to meet up early today."

"I know! I'm sorry! My mom had to talk to me about something." I replied, as we climbed the steps to the school.

"About what?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing important! I just went for a walk pretty late last night and she thought I was sneaking out to see someone."

"Someone like Adrien?"

"A-Alya!" She laughed.

"Well it would make sense… Considering you guys are working on that physics project together." I stopped dead in my tracks. Alya looked at me. "You DID start that project we were assigned, right?"

"WHAAAAAAAA!" My screams echoed through the empty school yard, as I collapsed to my knees. "How could I be such an idiot?!"

"Calm down, girl. It's not that bad-"Alya, began.

"What do you mean?! It's awful! I was so busy with other things that I forgot all about the project!" I exclaimed. "I didn't work on it at all last night! The first project I get to work on with Adrien and I go and mess it up! Now he's going to hate me!" I whined as Alya gripped my arm and pulled me to my feet.

"Pull yourself together!" She placed her hands on my shoulders and shook me lightly. "Do you really think Adrien's going to be mad? The project isn't due until Monday! You have all weekend to finish it. Now, take a deep breath, and relax." I sighed heavily, feeling my heartbeat slow down a bit. "Better?" I nodded. "Good. Now, get a grip on yourself and turn around."

"Why?"

"Hi, Adrien!" Alya said. My eyes widened in horror as Alya gave me a devilish smile.

"Hey, girls." I jumped out of my skin at the familiar voice coming from behind me. I unwillingly turned around, and felt my heart rate increase again as a pair of bright green eyes met my blue ones. I jumped backward and would have fallen over if it wasn't for Alya standing directly behind me. She gently pushed me back up so I was standing upright again.

"A-A-A-Adrien! H-Hi!You're -ah- here early today!" I somehow managed to stammer out. Adrien held his chin and raised an eyebrow at me, something he did often when I spoke to him.

"Well, yeah. I suppose I am." He replied, as I mentally beat myself up.

"Where's Nino?" Alya asked, attempting to prevent me from saying something stupid, again.

"I'm sure he's on his way." Adrien replied. He then turned his attention to me. "So, Marinette" He began. My heart was beating so hard, I was sure he could hear it."I was wondering, how much of the project do you have done so far?" My breathing hitched.

"P-p-project?! What project?" Another raised eyebrow in response. "Oh...OH! THAT project! Well I-I, uh, I-"

"Haven't started?" I could feel the worry fill my eyes. Adrien chuckled, then continued, "That's okay. I haven't either, so don't worry about it." His eyes darted away from me as he admitted this. "Anyway, since neither of us have started yet, do you want to schedule a time after school or this weekend we could get together and work on it?" My heart practically exploded when he asked this. I could feel the blood rush to my face and my lips quiver in anticipation as i ran through the potential responses in my head. However, my voice betrayed every one of those ideas.

"Y-yeah! I-I-, ah, love you-I MEAN- love TO! I-"

"She'll do it." Alya butted in, giving me a sympathetic smile. "You guys can do it at her house tomorrow."

"Okay... So, tomorrow at noonish then, Marinette?" Adrien replied, not seeming to be phased by my nonsense stuttering. I nodded to him in response. "Great!" Adrien quickly pulled out his phone and started to text away on it.

It was then that an arm snaked around Adrien's neck and pulled him into a headlock.

"Gotcha!" Nino exclaimed with a grin plastered on his face. He then proceeded to ruffle Adrien's hair. Adrien laughed and tried to pull away from Nino.

"Okay! Okay! You got me!" Nino finally let him go.

"Oh, hey girls." Nino said, acknowledging us.

"Hi, Nino." Alya replied, placing a hand on my shoulder "Well, it's about that time we head to class, don't you think, Marinette?" She asked.

"Yeah I think so too." Alya and I turned away from the boys and began to walk away. For one reason or another, I looked back to them. "See you later, Adrien!" I exclaimed with a smile.

He stared at me wide eyed, obviously just as shocked at my actions as I was. His expression slowly turned into a tender smile.

"Yeah. Later, Marinette."He replied. I turned my head back around and blushed intensely.

"Where in the world did that come from?!" Alya whispered as we continued to walk to our class.

"I-I have no idea!" I admitted, my face still red. Alya laughed wholeheartedly.

"Geez, you're just full of surprises, aren't you?" She continued to laugh as we walked to class.


	2. Chapter 2

The bell rang loudly in my ears, indicating end of class and the beginning of the lunch break. Most of the students in the class quickly gathered their things and left the classroom. I was busy sketching away in my notebook, designing a dress for my class. Alya was speaking with Nino about something while Adrien was standing next to them. After they said their goodbyes and the boys began to leave, Chloe chased after them, yelling about an exclusive event or something.

Alya came up to me. "Hey," She began "You want to head to the park? We can go get smoothies or something."

"Sure, let's go!" I quickly closed my notebook and put everything back into my bag. " Oh, wait… I promised my dad I'd watch the bakery on my lunch break so he can go get some more supplies."

"That's fine." Alya replied, however, her tone told me that it wasn't.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Hm? No. It's fine. How about this, you go watch the bakery and I'll bring you a smoothie. Okay?"

"Uh, sure." Alya then left, without a goodbye.

"She's acting… Strange." Tikki said, popping her head out of my purse.

"You're telling me." I replied. "She wasn't like this earlier… Maybe I can get her to talk to me when she comes to the bakery."

I quickly placed my backpack onto my shoulders and walked out of the class. As I walked into the schoolyard I noticed a small group of my classmates surrounding Adrien, who looked really uncomfortable, and Chloe who attached herself to his arm. Nino was standing outside of the group, looking quite annoyed. I went over to him

"What's all that about?" I asked him.

"I have no idea. Chloe just came over to Adrien and started screaming about some sort of party." Nino crossed his arms. "Now she won't let him go." He sighed.

"What party?" I asked.

"I dunno, some rich people's party." Nino replied, then he looked around. "Alya's not with you?"

"No, she went to go get us smoothies. Oh, that reminds me I have to go. Bye!" I waved to Nino and ran out of the school yard.

I arrived home fairly quickly and entered the bakery.

"Marinette! Just on time." My father said, "Your mother and I are headed out."

"Alright. Oh, Alya's coming over." I said, placing my bag behind the counter.

"That's fine." Dad quickly took off his apron and placed it on a hook. "Sabine, Marinette's here, we're leaving."

"Coming!" My mother called from upstairs. I heard her tiny footsteps move across the upstairs and down the stairs.

"Marinette, there's some salad in the fridge if you and Alya want it."

"Okay." I replied, taking out my sketchbook from my bag.

Both my parents quickly left the bakery, leaving me alone. Sort of.

Tikki flew out of my purse and sat on the counter.

"Mmmm! It smells like they are baking bread!" She giggled. "I love being able to come down here! It always smells so good!"

I smiled. "It's a bakery, Tikki." I said

"I know, I like it!" She glanced over to my book. "Wow! That dress looks beautiful! When are you going to make it?"

"Soon, hopefully. I mean, I have to. It's for my design class."

"Are you going to wear it?"

"Probably not." I replied simply.

"Why not? You would look really good in it!"

"Tikki, when would I ever get a chance to wear a fancy dress like this?" I asked, putting my pencil down.

"Good point."

It was then the bakery door opened and Alya came in, holding a purple smoothie in one hand and a pink one in the other. Tikki quickly hid in one of the display cases.

"Hey, girl, I got you a strawberry one." Alya said, handing me the pink one.

"Thanks!" I exclaimed, taking a sip of it.

"So…" Alya began, "I have a question for you. And I want an honest answer, no little white lies!"

"Okay, I got it." I replied, leaning my elbows on the counter and placing my chin in my hands.

"What...Do you think about… Nino?" Her eyes darted away from me.

"Nino…?" I repeated. Alya nodded. I thought about this for a little. I had never really spoken to him much, but from what I witnessed, he was a calm and collected person. " Well, he's cool," I began, "but I haven't talked to him much. Why do you ask?"

"No reason in particular!" This phrase caught my attention. Alya never, ever hid things from me.

"You sure?" I asked, more worried than intrigued. What was she hiding from me? And Why was she hiding it from me in the first place?

"I'm sure. Don't worry about it." She said with a smile, as she sucked on the straw of her smoothie. "Anyway, you all set for tomorrow? Do you want me to come over before hand for moral support?"

"No, I think I can manage."

"Are you sure? This is the first time Adrien will be at your house. With you. Alone." Alya said, " Just don't say anything stupid otherwise you may scare him off." My eyes widened at this statement. Alya realized this and quickly covered her mouth. "Marinette, I'm kidding. Don't freak out-"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN DON'T FREAK OUT?!" I exclaimed, as my hands pulled at my hair. "I'm going to say something stupid! You KNOW I am! I'm going to scare him away and he's going to hate me!"

"Calm down, I was kidding."

"I don't care! It's going to happen!"

"What's going to happen?" Dad asked as he and Mom entered the bakery, their arms full of bags.

"Oh, nothing. Marinette's just freaking out about something." Alya said, grabbing my bag off the counter. "C'mon, we should head back."

"No!" I exclaimed "I can't now! W-w-what happens if I see him?!"

"Then you have me. Let's go." Alya grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the bakery's counter and out the door.

"No! Alya! No! Leave me here! I don't want to go back! NO!"


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, I woke up the next morning much earlier than I intended, I was able to take a shower, get dressed and have breakfast all before nine. Taking advantage of the peace and quiet, I turned on some music, I sat down at my desk, opened my sketchbook to the dress, and started to measure out some red fabric for it. I took a pair of scissors and cut the amount I needed, folded it in half and pinned it together. I then pulled out some black fabric and measured how much I needed for that and did the same as the red fabric. I then took the scissors and, on the black piece, started to cut the shapes that I needed. Tikki woke up a short time after I turned on the music.

"It looks nice so far." She said.

"Thanks, but I haven't even started on the main part yet. This is just the outer part." I replied.

"Oh." Tikki replied. "You should make one for me!"

"Maybe I should, you would look so cute in it!"

"You think so?" She asked.

"I know so! I'll make you a dress after I finish this one."

"Yay!" Tikki exclaimed.

I continued to work on the dress and loose myself in the music. I got to the point where I was ready to sew the entire dress together when I noticed someone put their hand beside my sketchbook.

"Wow. These are really impressive." A voice said. I glanced over to see who the hand and voice belonged to. My eyes were suddenly scanning pools of light green. "Hi."

"A-A-A-Adrien!" I exclaimed, as I jumped up, tripped on the leg of my chair and fell backwards, my head hit the floor with a thud. "ow…"

"Are you okay?!" He asked, moving my chair and leaning over me.

"Y-yeah." I replied, holding the back of my head. Adrien extended his hand to me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I took his hand.

"Oh, no. Y-y-you just surprised me that's all." Adrien gently pulled me to my feet. " I wasn't e-expecting you so early!"

"Early?" He questioned. "I'm almost an hour late."

I looked at him in disbelief, then looked at the clock hanging up on the wall. He was right, it was already quarter to one.

"It's a-already that late?!" I exclaimed. "I didn't even notice!" I turned of the music and quickly started to put away the thread and scissors that I had been using.

"What are working on?" Adrien asked, helping me put away some of the things I was using.

"Oh, ah, j-just something for...uh..s-school… um.. yeah." I replied, grabbing the dress and placing it on a mannequin on the other side of the room.

"It looks nice so far." He said, "You're really talented."

"T-thank you!" I quickly looked away from him, as I could feel my cheeks burning and my heart pounding. I took a few deep breaths to try to calm down.

"Are you alright, Marinette?" Adrien asked, obviously noticing my odd actions.

"I-I'm fine!" I replied, turning to face him.

"But your face is red. Are you sick?" Adrien placed his hand on my forehead. My blush deepened and my heart pounded harder.

"N-n-n-no! I-I-I-I'm fine! Really, I'm fine!" I quickly moved away from him. "L-l-let's start on the project, okay?"

" Uh, sure."

I quickly turned on my computer and pulled out a large piece of dark pink poster board from underneath the table.

"Where should we start?" I asked.

"Hm. Well, we should start with the research." Adrien replied, "Mind if I use the computer?"

"Not at all!" I moved aside and Adrien sat down as the computer suddenly displayed a bight photo of Ladybug, one I had downloaded off of Alya's blog to replace the massive amount of Adrien photos I used to have as my home screen. Something I luckly thought of before he came over.

"A Ladybug fan, I take it?" Adrien asked, a bit of playfulness in his voice.

"Y-yeah! I think she's just to the coolest! I really look up to her, y'know!" I said with a smile on my face.

Adrien laughed. "I can see that. I'm quite a fan of her myself." This, obviously, caught my attention.

"R-really?!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah. There's just something about her, I don't really know what, but it makes me curious to know more about her." He stared at the the picture, his green eyes completely full of longing. "B-but of course, I'm a fan of Chat Noir as well!" He pried his eyes away from the screen to face me. "What do you think about him?"

"Me?! W-well, he's...interesting, I'll give him that. He's a huge flirt,though! And he never focuses at the job at hand. But he does have his good points. Er- from w-what I-I-I could tell… I o-only met him once, a-after all." I laughed awkwardly "He is kinda cute though." Adrien's eyes widened as I quickly covered my mouth. My mind screamed, _Oh my god, did I really just say that?! To Adrien?! ADRIEN OF ALL PEOPLE?! What is wrong with me?! Oh, god. He probably thinks I'm a freak now. What am I going to do?! MY LIFE IS OVER!_

"Cute?" Adrien repeated, then he chuckled a little. "Do you have a little crush on him or something?"

"W-w-w-what?! Of course not! I mean- not really- I mean of course not!" Adrien laughed.

"Seems like you do." He teased

"I do not!" I exclaimed.

He laughed again. "Come on, we should get started." He said, "How about I start on the research and you start the poster? I have a feeling you'll do a much better job at the visual portion than I would."

"All right."I said. I placed the poster board on to the desk. Adrien turned his attention to the computer and opened the browser. I pulled up a different chair and placed myself next to him as he typed away on the keyboard. His hands danced across the keys softly, yet quickly as his eyes scanned the screen. Every now and then he would glance over to me, probably trying to see how the poster was coming along.

I'm not sure how much time had passed, but I started to notice the sun start to set when I glanced out the window.

"Woah." I muttered.

"Something wrong?" Adrien asked as he finally finished typing up the report.

"N-no, it just got really late, that's all." I looked down at the poster and let a sigh. "I'm no where close to being done…" Adrien stood up and stretched his arms and legs out, then come over to my side.

"Wow." he said, as he leaned over the desk. "It looks amazing. You really are good at this stuff, huh? I'm kinda jealous."

"O-oh, no! Don't be! I'm sure you could have done just as well as I did!"

He chuckled."No way. I'm not nearly as talented as you, Marinette."

"W-w-well I-,"

"Marinette!" I heard my mother call from downstairs, "Are you almost done? Dinner's almost ready!"

"Okay!" I called back. The I turned to Adrien. "Would you like to stay for dinner, Adrien?" I asked. He looked a little shocked and confused when I asked, but he then smiled shyly.

"M-may I?" He asked, obviously unsure of himself.

"Of course!" I exclaimed.

"Then yes. I would like to stay."

"Okay!" I stood up from my chair, walked over to the hatch that lead downstairs. "Maman!" I called, "Set a plate for Adrien, too!"

"Alright then!" She called back, "You two might as well come down. It's almost done."

"Okay, coming!" I looked over to Adrien. "We can finish after we eat, alright?"

"Ah, yeah." Adrien awkwardly walked over next to me. I started to walk down the stairs when I noticed that Adrien was still standing at the top of the stairs.

"What's wrong?" I asked, stopping half way down the stairs.

"Oh, nothing." he replied. I noticed he still was not moving. Then I realized that he might be scared.

Even though I hadn't known Adrien very long, there was one thing I noticed about him, he was extremely shy. I quickly remembered this and walked back up the stairs. Gathering all the courage I didn't know I had, I gently grabbed his hand.

"It's okay." I whispered. "My parents are really nice people!" I gave him the biggest, most sincere smile I had. He stared at me for a little, then nodded. I slowly lead him down stairs to the kitchen, still smiling brightly.


	4. Chapter 4

My mother's laugh echoed through my ears. "Oh, this one time when she was just a baby, Marinette almost-"

"M-maman!" I exclaimed, my face was beet red, "Please don't tell him THAT story!" I buried my face in my hands. She continued to laugh.

"But you were such a cute baby, Marinette!" I shook my head rapidly, still hiding my face. I heard Adrien laugh.

"I don't doubt that for a second!" He said. I blushed more that I thought possible when I heard him say this.

"Alright, alright. Calm down everyone." Dad said, as he carried in a small white frosted cake from the kitchen. "Who wants some cake?"

"I would like some, please." Adrien said.

"We'll take it upstairs, Papa." I said, as I stood up and took both Adrien's and my own plate to the sink. "We still have our project to work on."

"Oh! I don't think you need any cake, Marinette." Dad teased, "If you eat anymore, you may not be able to fit into all those nice clothes you make!"

"Papa! That's not funny!" I whined as I stomped my foot. Dad laughed, as he sliced two pieces of cake and put each on a small plate. I grabbed two forks and then the two plates. "Thank you!" I quickly gave my dad a kiss on the cheek, then walked over to Adrien and handed him a plate. "Let's go finish the project."

"Yeah." Adrien replied, he then addressed my parents, "Thank you for allowing me to join you for dinner!" My mother and father looked at eachother then back to Adrien.

"Anytime, Adrien!" Dad replied. "You're welcome to join us for dinner whenever you would like!"

"Or if you just want to hear more stories about Marinette when she was a baby-" Mom began.

"That's enough! Let's go Adrien!" I said, quickly running up the stairs. He followed. As soon as we were in my room, I placed my plate on the table and closed the hatch. "I'm so sorry about them."

"I don't mind. Actually, your parents are really cool. You all seem so...close." Adrien slowly looked down to the cake. I noticed his eyes were different than they had been before. They were cold, sad, lonely even. He took his fork and sliced a piece off of the cake and slid it into his mouth. A childish smile formed on his lips, and a bright sparkle came to his eyes. "This is really good!" He said. "It's been so long since I had a homemade dessert!" He took another bite. "I can see why your parents' bakery does so well."

"Yeah." I replied, sitting myself back down at the table. Adrien finished his slice of cake and came to join me, placing the plate on the table.

"How much do we have left to do?" He asked.

"We just have to glue the graphs and report onto it,and finish decorating it." I replied, pulling out gluestick from one of the drawers on the table. I reached over him to grab the four sheets of paper that sat next to the computer. It was then I noticed Adrien staring at something at the other side of the table, I followed his gaze to see my slice of cake. I giggled. "Do you want it?" He looked at me, confused. "The cake."

"N-no! It's fine!" He said. "It's your's."

"You can have it, I'm really not going to eat it." I replied. I was, after all, saving it for Tikki.

"A-are you sure, Marinette?"

"Yep! Go ahead and take it."

"Thanks." He said, quickly scooping up the plate and dug into the cake. The adorable smile returned to his lips

"You really like sweets, huh?" I asked, dragging the gluestick across one of the papers then carefully placing it onto the poster.

"Not particularly. But this cake is just so good, I can't resist." _Noted._ I thought to myself. "Besides, I can't really have this type of stuff at home…"

"Why not?" I asked, turning my full attention to him.

"My…" His eyes darted away from me "Father never lets me have this kind of stuff."

"What about your mother?" I asked. Adrien turned his head away from me and stared at the floor for a while. His eyes clouded over and I could see tears start to form. I quickly got the hint. "S-sorry." I turned my attention back to the task at hand. After a couple minutes of silence, I suddenly heard police sirens blaring from the outside. This caught both of our attention. "Now?" I muttered, quickly jumping up out of my chair.

"I-I'm, uh, going to see what's going on." Adrien said, getting up from his chair and opening the hatch to downstairs. He then practically flew down the stairs.

"Good." I said, closing the hatch behind him. "That saves me the trouble of having to come up with an excuse. Tikki!" Tikki flew out from under my bed. "Let's go!" Tikki nodded and was quickly sucked into my earring.

A bright pink light engulfed my body, as a thin red mask with black dots formed around my eyes. A light ran down my body, replacing my soft cotton clothing with a flexible almost metallic bodysuit, the colors matching those of my mask. Finally, a small yo-yo appeared, it's thin cord wrapped around my hips. The pink light disappeared and I quickly climbed the white stairs that led to my bed then hopped out of the hatch that lead to my balcony.

The sun had finally set and the stars shined brightly above me. I took a second to admire them when a siren brought my attention back to where it needed to be. I quickly hopped the railing of my balcony and ran toward the direction the sirens were coming from. They were leading me to the Eiffel Tower.

The first thing I saw when I got there was a colorful toy like robot that was almost half as tall as the tower. The second thing I saw was Chat Noir, hanging upside down by his leg in the hand of the robot, banging on the hand with his staff while he yelled. I sighed.

"Some partner I have." I muttered. I quickly threw my yo-yo so it wrapped around the robot's hand. The robot noticed me at this time, as well as Chat Noir.

"You're late, My Lady." Chat Noir said, still hanging upside down.

"Kitty," I started, placing my hands on my hips, "How on earth did you get yourself in this situation?"

"It wouldn't have happened if you were here on time." I rolled my eyes, and pulled on the string to my yo-yo, causing the robot to lose the grip it had on Chat Noir's leg. He fell and finally joined me on the ground.

"Did you at least figure out where the Akuma is?" I asked

"Oh, come on, My Lady. What do you take me for?" He replied. "It's in the wind up key in it's back."

"Great. So how do you think we'll get it out?"

"Hey, hey, that's YOUR part of the job." He shrugged. I sighed.

Suddenly, the robot started to move. It reached down to the ground and swipped across the ground, sending not only us, but all the policemen and cars flying through the air.

Chat Noir and I landed on our feet, only a few feet from each other.

"Chat Noir, I have things I need to do, so I want to finish this as fast as possible." I said.

"I couldn't agree more." He replied, "What do you need me to do?"

"I'm not sure yet." The robot started to walk, each step it took caused the ground to shake. "If we don't stop it now, it'll destroy half of Paris!" I gripped my yo-yo tightly. "Lucky Charm!" I exclaimed, tossing it into the air. Suddenly, a small ball of red yarn with black spots fell into my hands. "What? What in the world am I supposed to do with this?"

"Is that… Yarn?!" Chat Noir asked, his eyes sparkling. I quickly glanced around, taking notice of the Eiffel Tower, the silver key in the back of the robot, and Chat Noir. That was it.

"Hey, Kitty." I held up the ball of yarn, I heard him squeal a tiny bit. "Do you want to play?"

"Yes!"

"Okay then. Go and get it!" I chucked the yarn in the direction of the robot, Chat Noir followed it on all fours. "Geez, he's more of a dog than a cat." I then tossed my yo-yo up to the top of the tower and waited.

Chat Noir raced up in front of the robot, which noticed him, and reached down to try and swipe him away. It was then I swung around the tower and kicked the key out of the robot. The robot slowly lost power and fell face first to the ground, almost landing on Chat Noir. I landed beside the key and picked it up.

"Hey!" Chat noir exclaimed, holding the ball of, now tangled yarn. "What was that? You almost killed me!"

"But I didn't, did I?" I replied, "Also, don't you have nine lives anyway?"

Chat Noir crossed his arm. "I'll have you know that is a complete myth!" I rolled my eyes and broke the key over my knee.

"Time to come out you awful bug." I said, as a black butterfly flew out of the key. I traced a line upwards on my yo-yo, the two sides opened like a ladybug's wings. I started to spin it around by body, "I'll free you from evil!" I threw the yo-yo at the butterfly, it scooped it up and returned to my hand. I pressed down on it and the butterfly flew out. "Bye, bye, little butterfly!" I then looked toward Chat Noir, who was content with wrapping himself up in the yarn. I extended my hand to him. He looked at me with big sad eyes and shook his head slowly. I nodded my head in response. He pouted and unwrapped himself and hesitantly handed me the yarn. I threw it up into the sky. "Miraculous Ladybug!" I called as a flood of red hearts came through and put everything the way it should be. I heard the beeping of my earrings, so I fist bumped Chat Noir quickly and started to run off.

"H- hey! Ladybug!" He called.

"Later!" I called back, quickly running as far away as I could. As soon as I thought I was far enough, I slid into an alleyway and felt myself become Marinette once again. Tikki fell out of my earring and into my hands. She moaned from exhaustion. "I'm sorry, Tikki."

"No… It's fine." She replied. "Let's just go home."

"Okay." I placed her inside my purse and poked my head out of the alleyway. I started to walk back the way I came, just to make sure everything was taken care of. After a while I arrived back at the Eiffel Tower. Almost all the police cars were gone, indicating that everything was officially over. I sighed in relief as I continued to walk down the sidewalk.

I was suddenly regretting not choosing a spot closer to home to transform back into Marinette. I groaned and dragged my feet, which only slowed me down more. I just wanted to be home at that second, I wanted to climb into bed and just die there. But of course, I had to get there first. If only the buses ran at this hour. If only I had thought about this while I was still Ladybug. If only there was a faster way for me to-

"Princess?"

((A/N: I absolutely suck at writing action scenes, I'm so sorry! I tried my best! XC))


	5. Chapter 5

The chilling blew against my face as I held on to Chat Noir for dear life. "Y-you're going to fast!" I exclaimed, as he continued to hop from rooftop to rooftop, with me, bridal style in his arms. He glanced down to me with a devilish smile as he slowly picked up speed.

"You want to get home, don't you Princess?" He replied.

"Not if it costs me my life!" I shot back, my arms tightening their grip around his neck.

"Don't worry." He said, "I would never drop _you_." He winked.

"And why's that?" I asked, glaring at him slightly.

"Heh… there's a rumor going around that you have quite the crush on me, Princess."

"W-w-what?! What in the world makes you think that?!"

"What other reason could you possibly have to be walking around this late at night by the location where an Akuma just was?" Chat Noir asked, a smirk on his face.

"That's because I-" I quickly stopped myself.

"You…?" He mocked.

"I-I-I-"

"So it is true! You are madly in love with me!" He laughed loudly.

"I am not!" I exclaimed. I suddenly heard beeping coming from one of Chat Noir's hands.

"Uh-oh." He muttered, "I'd better pick up the pace!"

"What? No! Wait, Chat Noir!" It was too late, Chat Noir was moving even faster than before. I quickly tighten my grip around his neck again and buried my face into his leather covered chest. I was used to moving at this speed as Ladybug, but never as Marinette. So, naturally, as Marinette, I was terrified. I felt him pull me in a little closer.

"Don't be scared." Chat Noir said, his voice was much softer than it had been before. "I really won't drop you, Marinette." I peeked up from his chest, a little surprised he actually called me by my name for once, and saw he was looking down at me with soft eyes and a kind smile. "Hold on." I closed my eyes tightly as Chat Noir took a particularly large jump, landing gently on something that sounded like metal. "We're here, Princess."

I opened my eyes as he lowered me gently onto my balcony. He remained on the railing, taking a sitting position I could only describe as frog like.

"Thank you, Chat Noir." I said taking a few steps backward. "I really appreciate it."

"Heh, y'know, most princesses reward their knights with a kiss." He replied.

"Good bye, Chat Noir." I turned to face the wall.

"I'm not leaving until I get my reward." He said, joining me on the balcony. I heard the beeping if his ring.

"I don't think you have a choice." I responded, pointing at his ring. He noticed it and quickly started panicking.

He ran over to the railing and gripped it with both hands. Looking back over to me he said, "I'll be back for my reward later, Princess." He winked, then leaped over the railing. I placed my hands on my hips and rolled my eyes.

"His 'reward'?! Not likely." I scoffed.

"M-Marinette…" I heard Tikki's muffled voice say.

"Oh! Tikki, I'm so sorry!" I quickly opened the hatch that lead back into my room and jumped down onto my bed. "Let's see." I looked around my room. "There has to be something here for you to eat." I then spotted a piece of half eaten cake on my table. "Ah." I quickly climbed down the stairs and picked up the plate "Tikki, eat up." Tikki slowly flew out of my purse, sat on the plate and picked apart tiny pieces of cake. She popped each piece into her mouth.

I sat back in a chair and and yawned loudly.

"Tired, Marinette?" Tikki asked.

"A little." I replied smiling at her. "Those battles don't just tire you out, Tikki."

"That's true. But you typically handle them so well." She replied, putting another piece of cake into her mouth.

"Yeah." I yawned again. It was then I heard footsteps coming quickly up the stair "Tikki, hide!" She just looked at me. I picked up the plate with her on it, and quickly hid it under the table. The door opened barley after a second I completed this act.

"Sorry I took so long, Marinette." Adrien said as he climbed into the room.

"O-oh, th-that's fine." I replied as he walked over to the desk.

"Shall we finish up?" He asked, smiling at me with soft eyes.

"Y-yeah." Adrien sat down next to me as we each took a pencil in our hands and started to put the finishing touches on the poster.I notice him yawn multiple times as we did so.

It wasn't long before we were interrupted by a sudden ring of a cell phone. Adrien pulled one out of his pocket and moved to a corner of my room, facing away from me. I suddenly felt my eyelids become really heavy and before I knew it, I drifted away into darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

My eyes reluctantly opened as I slowly regained my consciousness. I whined quietly to myself as I stretched out my arms. It was then I realized that I wasn't in my bed, rather I was laying on my chaise, and was covered with a thin pink blanket. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then looked around the room to figure out why I wasn't in my bed. I turned my head to the side where my table sat and there I found my answer.

Adrien was sitting in a chair, and hunched over, his head resting my table. His back was raising and falling rhythmically.

"A-Adrien?" I muttered, completely unsure if I was dreaming or not. After I concluded that I was in actual reality and not in a subconscious fantasy, I slowly stood up and quietly made my way over to Adrien. I studied him for a little, noticing how peaceful his face was while he slept. However, something under his head caught my eye. It was our project, completely finished. The only thing was, I don't remember finishing it.

"I must have fallen asleep before I finished it." I whispered to myself, "And then he must have-" My cheeks began to burn as I realised he must have been the one to move me to the chaise and cover me with the blanket. Just the thought of me being in Adrien's arms was enough to cause my stomach to flutter.

After I was able to calm down and get my heartrate under control, I decided it was time to wake him up. I gently placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Adrien." I said softly, shaking him, gently. "Adrien, wake up." He moaned and turned his head the other way. I sighed with a smile on my face. "Adrien, come on." I shook him a little harder. He moaned again, then his eyes slowly opened. "Good morning." I said.

Adrien stared at me with a confused look on his face. He studied me for a second, then his eyes widened in sudden realization. "M-Marinette?" He asked. I smiled. "Oh no." Adrien muttered as he sat up and pulled his phone out of his pocket. His eyes scanned the screen and suddenly filled with worry. "Oh no." He repeated, quickly standing up from the chair.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I-I should have left last night." He muttered. It was then we heard muffled talking coming from down stairs. I recognised my mother's and father's voices, but there was a female voice that I didn't recognise.

"Nathalie." Adrien muttered, moving over to the hatch. He pulled up on it and slowly started to walk the stairs. I followed close behind.

"I assure you, he is not here." I heard my mother say, as we got closer to the end of the staircase, the scene unfolded to us.

My mother and father were standing by the front door, blocking entry from a tall, thin, mature looking woman.

"He must be." The woman replied. "He did not return home last night, nor did he call for his chauffeur."

"I knew this would happen." Adrien whispered. It was then the woman looked in our direction.

"Adrien." She said. My mother and father turned to the staircase, their eyes widened in disbelief.

"Hey, Nathalie." Adrien responded.

"Is there a reason you did not return last night?" Adrien stayed silent. "I see... Your father will talk to you when you get home." Something changed about Adrien when his father was mentioned, I'm not sure what it was but just the feel around him changed. "Let's go." He slowly climbed down the remaining stairs.

"Adrien…" I muttered, he glanced back up to me and gave me a small, sad smile.

"There is no excuse for your irresponsibility." The woman began to say "You missed an important photoshoot, as well as-"

"It wasn't his fault!" I exclaimed suddenly. Everyone looked at me in shock.

"Oh? If it wasn't his fault," The woman said, " Then whose was it?"

"...Mine." I replied, shyly.

"Marinette…" Adrien whispered, wide eyed.

"W- we were working on a project for school, and I ended up falling asleep. Adrien probably didn't have the heart to wake me up, so he took the burden of finishing the project by himself. He... must have fallen asleep while doing it." I stopped and looked Nathalie right in the eye. "So if anyone's to blame, it's me!"

Nathalie looked at me. She then closed her eyes, and a slight smile formed on her lips. "Very well then. I'll bring it up to Mr. Agreste." She said. "Let's go, Adrien." Adrien turned to Nathalie and nodded, he glanced back to me one last time before walking over to her. They left in an hurry. I let out a relieved sigh as I sat on the stairs.

"Marinette." My mother said, joining me on the stairs. "Is what you said to that woman the truth?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, a little confused. "Of course it was the truth."

My mother looked directly into my eyes. "Are you positive?"

"Yes." I replied, matching her stare. "Why?" Mom smiled sweetly, and shook her head.

"Oh, no reason." She said, as she stood up. "What do you want for breakfast?" I shrugged. "I'll think of something, then." She then went into the kitchen, using a hand gesture to get my father to follow her, which he did. I found this odd, but decided to head back up into my room, anyway.

As I closed the door to my room I heard my phone beep. I quickly made my way to the table where it sat. I picked it up and was surprised to see Adrien's picture with a small letter like icon flash across my screen.

"When did he get my number?" I asked myself, remembering that Alya gave me his, but I never gave him mine. I dragged my finger across the screen, unlocking it, and tapped on the letter icon. It was an simple message, not long or wordy, but short. Even so, it made my stomach flutter in an way that was different than it had before, and my cheeks burned much hotter than before.

''Thank you :)" Was all the message said.


	7. Chapter 7

((A/N: Okay, before I start this chapter, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have followed/ favorited/ reviewed this story. I am honestly not that confident in my writing and seeing that this story has gotten over 4,000 views in a week is amazing to me. I'm really happy you all are enjoying this so much! I know some of my phrasing is awkward, and I miss things when I edit, but seeing how all of you like it, it really means alot to me. So thank you so much for giving me the confidence I needed to continue with this! Please continue to enjoy it, as I have A LOT more planned for this story!))

"Girl, I'm so proud of you!" Alya shouted, gripping my shoulders and pulling me close to her. She flattened the rolled poster board I had in my hand by accident.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" I asked, pulling her hands away from me and taking a step back, and fixing the poster.

"Don't act like you don't know!" She replied. I stared at her, a bit confused. She sighed. "Nino told me what you did for Adrien."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I'm talking about how you totally stood up for Adrien yesterday!" Alya adjusted her glasses as she said this. "I didn't know you had that in you." She laughed. I smiled at her.

"You said it yourself." I responded, "I'm just full of surprises… I am grounded though." Alya gave me a sad look.

"But it was worth it, right?" She asked.

"Of course!" We laughed as we started to walk up the steps into the school as Alya continued to fawn over my actions yesterday.

"Marinette!" The call of my name caught my attention. I glanced behind me to see Adrien stepping out of a small sliver car.

"Later." Alya said, quickly walking into the school.

"W-wait A-Alya!" I called, reaching out to her, but she was gone. Adrien came running up to me.

"Hey." He said, panting a little.

"H-hi." I replied. An awkward silence fell between us. I bit my lip as Adrien slowly rubbed the back of his head. After a few moments he spoke.

"Look… I really appreciate what you did." He began, "No one's ever really stood up for me like that. But you…" he stopped and looked down to the ground. "Marinette, you… didn't have to take the blame."

"It's fine!" I assured him, "I didn't want to see you get into trouble… besides when you think about it, it really was my fault."

"No, Marinette, it wasn't." He gently placed a hand on my shoulder and he stared into my eyes. "But still, thank you."

"No problem." I replied, "What are friends for?" Adrien's eyes widened.

"Friends?" He repeated, obviously shocked by my statement. I immediately started to panic.

"Er- a-a-are we not fr-friends?" I asked, "I mean it- it's fine if we're n-not. I-I-I mean I would love it if we were er- u-u-unless you d-d-d-don't want to be."

"N-no!" Adrien exclaimed, "We are friends, Marinette! We are!" He said this as if he was trying to convince himself that it was true. "Is that the project?" He pointed to the poster in my arms.

"Uh, yeah!" I replied.

"Let me take it." He reached for it.

"Oh, uh, you don't have to!"

"I don't mind." Adrien responded, taking the poster into his hand. "It's a little crushed."

"Y-yeah, that was Alya's doing." I smiled

"A-anyway, I should go find Nino. He said he had to tell me something so, I'll see you later." Adrien started to walk up the the stairs, then quickly turned back to me. "Oh, Marinette, did I leave… something at your house?"

"A-at my house?" I asked, he nodded. "Not that I know of." He looked a little irritated when I said this. "B-but I'll keep my eye out for it…"

"I think it would be better if I looked for… it" Adrien muttered.

"Well, I would invite you over again… but I'm kind of grounded." I whispered the last part.

"You're Grounded?!" Adrien said in shock. "Was it... because of… me?"

"N-no! O-of course n-n-not!" I said quickly. Adrien looked down to his feet.

"I'm sorry." He said, then quickly turned away from me, almost as if he was ashamed of himself.

"Adrien-,"

"I'll see you later, Marinette." He quickly walked into the school.

"Wait, Adrien!" I called, but he was already gone. "Tikki… do you think Adrien's blaming himself for what happened yesterday?"

"Um…" Tikki popped her head out of my purse. "It looks that way. Maybe he's feeling guilty about you taking all the blame."

"Yeah, that's was I was thinking too. But… I don't want him to feel like that." I sighed. Then continued to walk up to the stairs.

When I arrived into the school yard and was greeted by a great number of my classmates standing in a circle, talking. I noticed that Alya was part of this group. She had her phone out and was no doubt filming something for her blog. When I got closer, all there attention was on me.

"Marinette!" Rose exclaimed, "Tell us how it happened!"

"How what happened?" I asked. Alya then came rushing up to me.

"How come you didn't even tell me, your best friend?!" She asked, shoving her phone in my face.

"T-tell you what?" I responded.

"Oh, come on, Marinette." Juleka said. "Tell us about your mystery date with Chat Noir."

"W-w-w-w-what?! W-what are y-you guys talking a-about?!" I

"Well, Max told Rose, who told Juleka, who told Kim, who to Sabrina, who told Chloe, who told everyone else that Alix saw you riding bridal style in Chat Noir's arms!" Alya explained, "Is it true?!"

"What?! No! That's not true at all!" I replied.

"What's not true?" Nino asked, standing unusually close to Alya Adrien came up behind him, smiling at Alya. She smiled back to him. _At least he seems like he's okay…_ I thought.

"Oh! Adrien! Perfect timing!" Alya exclaimed, now shoving the phone in his face, "You were with Marinette all weekend, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Pretty much." He replied, trying to push Alya away. "We were working on a project."

"Was there, at any time, a chance for Marinette to sneak out to see her secret lover?"

"Alya!" I yelled.

"'Secret lover'?" Adrien said, questioningly.

"Chat Noir." Alya clarified.

"Ch-Chat Noir?!" He said, "What makes you think that?"

"Alix said she saw Chat Noir carrying Marinette."

"I was with her the whole time." Adrien quickly glanced over to me. "The _whole_ time."

"Y-you were?" Alya sounded disappointed as she lowered her phone. "Aww! Here I am thinking I had a juicy story and- aaah." She hung her head as the circle of classmates, who also looked disappointed, disbursed. Nino went over to Alya and patted her on the back, she smiled up at him. Adrien was looking over to them, a small grin on his lips. Suddenly, Nino and Alya started laughing. This raised my suspicions.

"Wait a second… Am I missing something?!" I asked. Everyone glanced over to me.

"Wait… did you seriously not tell her?" Nino asked.

"No, I'm pretty sure I did… We were talking about something, then Adrien came over and… Oops, I guess I didn't tell her." Alya replied.

"Tell me what?!" I asked. Alya and Nino looked at eachother and smiled.

"Well, you see Marinette…we, ah, we're..." Nino began, then glanced to Alya. She rolled her eyes.

"Nino and I are…"


	8. Chapter 8

"DATING?!" I exclaimed, face planting directly onto my table. "They're… dating."

"Yes, Marinette." Tikki replied, biting down on a cookie. "We've been going through this all morning."

"I know… I just can't believe it."

"Why not? There were obvious signs they liked each other." My head shot up to look at Tikki.

"There were?!" Tikki looked at me, then smiled.

"Of course there were! Did you not notice?" I shook my head. "Really?!" Tikki giggled. "That actually doesn't surprise me. You can be so dense sometimes, Marinette!"

"Hey!" I responded. "I am not dense." She giggled again.

"But aren't you happy for them?"

"Yeah…" I muttered.

"That… Wasn't very enthusiastic."

"I know… I just feel like… I don't know… I feel like this is going to end up like one of those cheesy chick flick movies that you watch when you have nothing better to do."

"What do you mean?" Tikki asked.

"You know, girl meets boy, they start dating, and the girl forgets all about her friend." I replied, sighing to myself.

"Do you really believe that?" Tikki asked, "Do you really think Alya would forget about you?"

"I don't know…"

"Marinette, she's your best friend! She would never do such a thing." Tikki said. "But look on the bright side, you'll get to spend more time with Adrien!" I smiled at this.

"Yeah." I replied, I glanced over to my clock. "We should head back." I stood up from the table and grabbed my backpack. "Let's go, Tikki."

Tikki glanced over to something by the back of my computer then quickly flew back into my purse as I put my backpack on. I quickly began to walk down my stairs when my father came out from around the corner.

"Marinette, did you eat the camembert that was on the counter?" He asked.

"No." I replied. "I hate the smell of that stuff."

"Hmm… then where could it be? I was sure I left it on the counter" Dad muttered as he went back into the kitchen. I watched him leave, then continue to walk down the stairs. I walked over to the front door, opened it, and walked out. I sighed as I began my short journey back to the school building. I really didn't want to go back.

I was really upset about the fact that Nino and Alya were now a couple. It wasn't as though I wasn't happy for them, I truly was and I supported them one hundred percent, it just came as a shock to me. I didn't think that Nino had any interest in Alya, and she never told me about liking Nino. I think it was that part that hurt the most. Alya never told me anything about even having an interest in anything other than what Ladybug was up to.

"Maybe… I don't know her as well as I thought I did." I thought, unknowingly, out loud. "Should she even call me her best friend…?" I suddenly felt sick to my stomach as I stopped walking. _Can she even call me a friend?_ I sighed pathetically.

"Oh, is poor little Marinette depressed?" A snooty, teasing voice from behind me said. It was followed by a meek sounding giggle. I didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.

"Go away, Chloe." I responded, starting to walk again. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you."

"Excuse me?!" Chloe shouted.

"You heard me." I quickly got as far away from her as I could, even though it was obvious we were going to the same class. Chloe continued her verbal assault on me, picking at everything from my hair, to my clothes, to my designs as Sabrina giggled. _Please just leave me alone._ I was so close to snapping by the time I reached the door of my physics class. I leaped into the class as if it were my safe haven. Chloe and Sabrina came in after me, still spewing comments at me. Alya noticed this.

"Hey!" She yelled, crossing her arms against her chest. "How about you take your little fan girl and sit your butt down before I beat it." Chloe glared at her, and was going to say something back when the teacher entered the room and told everyone to sit down, which we did. The teacher then started to talk about the projects we had and which pairs were presenting in which order.

"First will be Kim and Alix, then Rose and Nathanael, Alya and Juleka will be third, then Adrien and Marinette, and last for today will be Chloe and Sabrina." Adrien looked up to me and nodded his head when our names were mentioned. I smiled back to him. The teacher turned and started to write the order on the board. "Everyone else will go tomorrow. Now, let's begin!"

Kim and Alix walked, well more like raced, up to the front of the class and showed their poster. It was… interesting to say the least. To me, it looked rushed, the title at the top was crooked, the graphs were lopsided and the report was definitely less than the one page minimum. No doubt they spent their entire time fighting with each other rather than working. Even during their presentation they were arguing. When they finally finished, the class clapped awkwardly as they returned to their seats.

The teacher moved back over to the board and crossed off the names at the top of the lists, and the next pair of partners went up to the front.

Rose and Nathanael's poster was cute. It was obvious that Rose was the planner, but Nathanael did all the decorating.

Suddenly, the door of the classroom crashed open and the sound of Rose's screams filled my ears.


	9. Chapter 9

"What the heck was that?!" Kim asked. "Where on earth did it come from?!"

"Who cares! It took Rose!" Juleka exclaimed.

The entire class was surrounded by the, now broken, window. Most of them were freaking out at what we all had witnessed. Alya had her phone out, no doubt getting the entire thing on video for her blog, while Nathanael was sketching away quickly in a notebook. The principal came running into the room.

"What on earth happened?!" He asked.

"A creature of some sort had just broken into the classroom and ran off with Rose!" Juleka replied, "We have to find her!"

"Did anyone get a good look at it?" Most of the class shook their heads.

"Guys," Nathanael muttered, then he showed the picture he had been drawing. It was of a lizard like creature, that stood up on two legs, with spikes that lined it's back. It also had a long tail with a spike covered ball at the end. The class gasped as Alya got a close up of the picture.

It was then I decided I had to do something. I slowly backed away from the group, making sure that no one would notice me leave. I quickly ran into the girl's bathroom, checked all the stalls, and locked the door.

"Tikki, come on, we have to find Rose!" I said. Tikki flew out of my purse and nodded. "Let's go!"

Tikki was sucked into my earring, five black dots appeared, and a bright pink light engulfed my body. A red mask appeared around my eyes, as a light ran down my body, and a metallic bodysuit formed. The last thing to form was the yo-yo around my waist.

I quickly left the bathroom and ran through the halls of the school. As I was about to pass my physics class, Alya came running out the door excitedly.

"Ladybug!" She exclaimed, her hands shaking as she held her phone. "I knew you would come here!" A few of my other classmates came running out. This included Adrien. A few of them screamed in excitement when they saw me. Juleka came up to me.

"Please," she begged, a worried look in her eye, as she gripped my arm gently. "My friend Rose… she was taken by… by…" tears started to flood down her cheeks. I had never seen Juleka so worried. In fact I had never seen her so emotional at all. I placed my hands on her shoulder.

"Don't worry," I assured her. "I will get her back." I smiled at her. She nodded slowly as I pulled her hand away. "Do any of you know where the creature went?" I addressed the other students. Most of them shook their head.

"I saw." Adrien said, "It was headed toward the park." I stared at him, then nodded.

"Thank you." I said then continued to run down the hall. I noticed that I was being followed by both Alya, who was still filming, and Adrien. I stopped running and turned to them. "You two should stay here." I said.

"No way!" Alya replied, "I gotta film everything for my blog!"

"I don't have time to argue with you, your classmate is in trouble. Please, just stay here."

"No." Alya replied, a determined spark in her eye. I sighed in defeat. I really didn't want to argue with her, especially since Rose was missing. I glanced at Adrien, who had the same spark of determination in his eye.

"Fine." I agreed, "Just promise me you both will keep your distance. Chat Noir can be quite reckless with his staff. The last thing I need is you two getting hurt!" Adrien started to rub the back of his head awkwardly as I said this.

"Got it." Alya replied, giving me a quick thumbs up. I sighed and quickly returned to run out of the school. I turned in the direction of the park. It wasn't long after I entered the park when I found Rose. She was completely calm, as she sat on a small red blanket across a large green creature that looked almost identical to the one Nathanael had drawn. Rose smiled happily at the creature as she picked up a small triangular sandwich.

"Thank you!" She said. I slowly approached them, Alya and Adrien not far behind me.

"R-Rose?" I asked, thinking she must have been under some sort of Akuma spell. She looked over to me.

"Oh, Ladybug! And Adrien and Alya too! Is Chat Noir not with you Ladybug? Oh well ,it's still nice to see you! Would you like to join our little picnic?" She asked.

"O-oh, no thank you." I replied. It was then the creature noticed us. It stood up and turned to face us. It let out a devilish roar, and swung it's tail at us. I swiftly jumped out of the way, grabbing Alya's and Adriens wrists as I did. I ran them over outside the fence of the park.

"Stay here." I commanded them. When ran back to face the creature, I found Rose hugging it gently as she whispered quietly to it. "What in the world…?" Rose looked up to me. The creature turned and let out it's roar again.

I quickly covered my ears, then noticed it start to spit some sort of green liquid at am, some of it hit my feet. I suddenly felt like there were large weights on my feet, and I would barely lift my legs. It was then the tail coming at me.

A sharp pain flowed through my chest as I flew backward and slammed against a tree. I slid down the tree on to the ground.

"Ladybug!" I heard Alya yell. The tail started to rise again.

"Watch out!" Adrien yelled, racing in front of me. The next thing I knew, Adrien was flying through the air, landing on the other side of the park.

"ADRIEN!" I screamed, tear formed in my eyes as I saw how hard he had landed. I glared at the creature, and struggled to my feet. I started to swing my yo-yo, when Rose suddenly ran in front of the creature, holding her hands out.

"Wait!" She exclaimed, "Don't hurt him!" She turned to the creature and placed her hand on it's head. It calmed to her touch. I stared at her, utterly confused. "He's just frightened!"

"He…?" I asked. Rose nodded.

"He's my little cousin." She pointed to a small dinosaur shaped necklace hanging off the neck of the creature. "I got him that necklace for his birthday. I promised him we'd play together, but I had to go to school first… Please, Ladybug, help him!"

"I will." I replied. I walked up to the creature and reached up to the necklace, he growled at me. I pulled my hand back, gripped my yo-yo tightly, then threw it up into the sky. "Lucky Charm!" Suddenly a blanket fell out of the sky. I looked at it questioningly, then Rose quickly grabbed it out of my hands and wrapped the head of the monster with it. It calmed down to the point it sat on the ground and started to fall asleep. Rose then slipped the necklace off and tossed it to me. I crushed it in my hand and a black butterfly came flying out of it. I traced a line upwards on my yo-yo, the two sides opened like a ladybug's wings. I started to spin it around by body, "I'll free you from evil!" I threw the yo-yo at the butterfly, it scooped it up and returned to my hand. I pressed down on it and the butterfly flew out. "Bye, bye, little butterfly!" Rose handed me the blanket back. I threw it up into the sky. "Miraculous Ladybug!" A flood of red hearts came flying through, fixing the necklace. I saw the monster transform into a little blond haired boy, no older than five. Rose scooped him up in her arms and cradled him.

"Thank you, Ladybug!" Rose exclaimed," I'm going to bring him home!" Rose grabbed the necklace off of the ground and walked out of the park.

I quickly turned to the direction Adrien had fallen to see him standing, holding one of his arms with a little blood coming from the side of his head. I raced over to him.

"Are you all right?!" I asked.

"Yeah… don't worry about me. I've dealt with worse, My La- er, Ladybug." Adrien replied.

"That was so cool!" Alya came running over to us. "Adrien, you are much tougher than I thought! And Ladybug you were absolutely amazing, like always, of course! And the best part, I got all of it on video! What a scoop! The only thing missing is… well, Chat Noir."

"M-maybe he had his own mission to complete." Adrien said quickly, obviously trying to ignore the small amount of blood streaming from his temple and cheek. I stared at him, feeling awful.

"I'm sorry." I muttered. He smiled at me.

"Don't worry about it. After all there's something else you should be worried about." Adrien pointed to my earrings. I hadn't even noticed the beeping. I immediately began to panic.

I ran out of the park, regrettably leaving Adrien there.


	10. Chapter 10

"It was so cool, Mari!The only thing missing was Chat Noir...where was he? Ah, who cares. There's this one part that I HAVE to show you!" Alya exclaimed, shoving her phone in my face, the video she shot earlier was playing on her screen. "Did you see that?! Adrien totally protected Ladybug! I can't believe he did that!"

"Yeah, neither can I…" I muttered this more to myself than to Alya as we walked along the side of the school.

"Adrien was so beat up they sent him home early!" Alya continued. "You totally missed your chance to care for him!"

"Yeah…" I stared at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Alya asked, obviously noticing my lack of enthusiasm.

"It's nothing…" I replied, "Don't worry about it."

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you _know_ I'm not going to let this go with that type of response. Especially when you've been acting weird all day." Alya placed a hand on my shoulder and we stopped walking. "Come on, tell me what's bugging you." I looked up to her as I felt the warm rush of tears form in my eyes. "Marinette…"

"I… I...I can't tell you." I whispered.

"Why not?" She asked, I looked away from her.

"I-I just can't, okay?"

Alya smiled at me and said, "Okay. I get it. You can tell me when you're ready." Alya pulled me into a warm hug. "You'll always be my number one priority, Mari." My eyes widened. "I noticed how hesitant you were with Nino earlier. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I will be here for you. I promise." I hadn't even noticed I started crying, but I sobbed into Alya's shoulder as she gently stroked the back of my head. That wasn't even the reason I was upset, even so, hearing her say those words were enough cause me to fall apart.

After a few minutes, I finally stopped crying and pulled away from Alya. She smiled back to me. I felt as though a thousand bricks were removed from my shoulders.

"Better?" Alya asked.

"Yes!" I replied, smiling. "Much better!"

"See? Sometimes crying can solve your problems." We laughed as we resumed walking. Alya and I soon went our separate ways.

I slowly opened the front door of my house and quickly went inside. I closed the door behind me and walked up to the stairs to the other door that lead into the actual household. I opened that door and close it behind me as well. I knew both my parents were downstairs in the bakery, as they always were. I let out a loud sigh and tossed my backpack onto the couch. I really didn't want to deal with my homework right now, I just wanted to crawl into a ball. Although crying with Alya made me feel a little better than before, I still felt extremely guilty about letting Adrien get hurt. It stung my heart as I thought about it. I felt like crying again, when suddenly I heard a loud crash coming from my room, almost like glass shattering. Tikki popped her head out of my purse.

"What was that?" She asked.

"I don't know." I replied. "Tikki, get ready." Tikki nodded. I slowly made my way up the staircase to my room, then opened the hatch to my room to see shards of glass on my bedroom floor right by my table. I stepped into my room and inspected the shards. It was then I noticed it was an old vase I had. I looked at it questioningly, knowing that it used to sit far enough away from the edge of the table that there was no possible way for it to just have fallen over. I shrugged, then swiftly ran back downstairs to grab a broom and dustpan.

As I started to sweep up the glass, I noticed something black move behind my computer out of the corner of my eye. I looked over, wondering if it were just my imagination, then finished sweeping up the glass and threw it away. I walked over to my computer, curious to see what I thought saw move. I honestly didn't expect to see anything, but I looked behind the computer monitor anyway.

It was then I saw it. A small black creature with cat-like ears, nibbling on a piece of cheese. I let out a shriek of surprise and tripped over my own two feet and fell backwards onto the floor.

"Woah, woah, no need to scream my ears off." The creature said, flying out from behind the computer. He looked around for a little, then noticed me on the floor. His green tinted eyes widened then started to chuckle. "Wow, Tikki. I would think you would have chosen someone with a little more… grace to be Ladybug." Tikki flew up to it.

"Who I choose to be Ladybug is none of your business, Plagg." Tikki replied. I looked at Tikki, confused. She turned to me. " Marinette, this is Plagg. He's a Kwami, like me."

"A Kwami?" I repeated. Tikki nodded.

"For Chat Noir." Plagg said, tossing the piece of cheese into his mouth. I quickly jumped to my feet when he mentioned this.

"W-w-w-wait! You're Chat Noir's Kwami?! What on earth are you doing here?!" I asked.

"You tell me, sweet cheeks." Plagg replied, "I just woke up here the other day."

"Other day? YOU'VE BEEN HERE FOR DAYS?!"

"Yep." I stared at Plagg, my mouth hung open. Chat Noir's Kwami had been in my house for days and I had no idea.

"Well, at least it makes sense as to why he wasn't there when that Akuma showed up." I said.

"What Akuma?" Plagg asked.

"That doesn't matter right now. What matters is getting you back to Chat Noir." I said.

"How do you expect to do that? You'll have to figure out who he is." Tikki said.

"I'll tell you who he is. He's Adr-" I quickly covered Plagg's mouth.

"No." I said as I shook my head. "I don't want to know who he is. I want our identities to remain a secret. With that said, you have to promise me that you will not tell him who I am."

Plagg pushed my hand away and asked, "Why is that? Believe it or not Chat Noir has been trying to figure out who you are forever now, why not let him know?"

"I… I just don't want that, okay?" I replied.

"Okay, okay. So if you don't want to know who Chat Noir is… then how do you expect to get me back to him?" I thought about this for a little. Plagg had a point. How was I going to get him back without knowing Chat Noir's identity.

"Well, I guess you would just ride around in my bag, and if you see him, just go to him." I muttered, unsure of myself.

"That actually might work." Plagg said.

"Y-you think so?!" I asked.

"Yeah, considering… " Plagg stopped.

"Considering…?"

"Nothing. Anyway I have one condition for keeping your secret."

"And what's that?" I asked.

"Camembert."


	11. Chapter 11

"Tikki," I called, frantically searching my table. "Have you seen my sketchbook?"

"No, not since yesterday." Tikki replied. I placed my hands on my hips and I glanced around my room.

"Where would it have gone?" I looked at my clock. "Well, I don't have time to look for it now." I quickly placed my pink backpack onto my table and crammed it with multiple notebooks and pencils. I arranged them in a way so that there was enough space for Plagg to sit without the books falling on top of him. "Plagg." I called, the small Kwami was nowhere in sight. "Plagg?" I called again. I crossed my arms, "Plagg, come on, we don't have time for this."

"Marinette, he's over here." Tikki called from under my bed. I quickly climbed the stairs and peaked under my bed. Sure enough, Plagg was laying under it, asleep on top of my sketchbook. I sighed and picked him and my sketchbook up slowly. He awoke at the sudden movement.

"Hey, what's the big idea, sweet cheeks? I was having a wonderful dream about a sea of melted Camembert." Plagg said.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I have to go to school." I replied, "And would you stop calling me sweet cheeks?" I swiftly, but carefully, shoved Plagg into my backpack.

"Hey! What about my Camembert?" I zipped it up tight and placed it onto my back.

"Come on, Tikki." Tikki quickly flew into my purse. I left my room and walked down the stairs.

"Oh, Marinette." Dad said, holding three circular shaped tins. "Here's that Camembert you wanted." He held out the tins to me. I took them. "But… I thought you hated Camembert."

"O-oh, I do, but… Alya loves it!" I lied, "Anyway, thank you Papa!" I gently kissed him on the cheek. "I'll see you at lunch!" I quickly left before he could ask any more questions. I unzipped my bag and tossed the three tins of cheese into it. Plagg let out a cry of happiness. "Now you have to keep your part of the deal." I whispered into the bag.

"Yeah, yeah. I won't tell Chat Noir who you are… Hey that rhymed! I'm a poet and didn't even know it!" Plagg bursted out laughing. I rolled my eyes. _Well,_ I thought, _At least I know where Chat Noir gets his sense of humor from._ I rezipped the bag and continued my walk to the school.

The crisp fall air brushed against my cheeks and I immediately regretted not wearing a jacket, as I was starting to see my own breath. I rubbed my arms, trying to warm myself up as walked up the stairs into the school.

I entered the classroom to see Sabrina and Chloe crowding around Adrien as he sat in his typical spot in the front row. Alya and Nino stood to the side of them. I walked over to see Adrien, who looked pretty normal, besides the two large scratches on his face, one on his temple, the other on his cheek, and one of his hands bandaged up to the elbow. I immediately felt my stomach knot and an overwhelming feel of guilt filled me to the brim. I passed the group, avoiding eye contact with Adrien, and took my usual seat behind him and put my head down.

"I can't believe Ladybug left without thanking you!"I heard Chloe say, "How inconsiderate!"

"I don't think _you_ have the right to call anyone inconsiderate." I heard Nino mutter, Chloe scoffed.

"Whatever! Just look at Adrien's face, he's going to have scars after those heal! I don't care how cool Ladybug is, she had no right to leave you there like that!"

"It's fine Chloe. It's not a big deal, besides, she didn't really have a choice." I heard Adrien say. I smiled to myself, but still felt awful.

A warm hand suddenly started to pat me on my back. I glanced up to see Alya, smiling down to me, as she took her spot beside me.

"You okay?" She asked, her question grabbing both Nino and Adrien's attention. Again, I did my best to avoid eye contact with him.

"I'm fine." I replied.

"You don't seem fine." Nino remarked.

"I am." I said, with more attitude than I meant. "I just…" I sighed, and placed my head back down. "Don't want to talk right now." Alya and Nino apparently got the hint and quickly started talking about other topics.

"Marinette…" I heard Adrien say. Chloe's voice drowned his out as she started to talk about some party they both were supposed to attend or something. Soon after, the teacher came in and asked everyone to take out their notebooks.

I picked my head up and unzipped my backpack. I was greeted with three empty tins of Camembert and missing Plagg and sketchbook.

"Plagg?" I whispered as quietly as I could while I shifted around my items in my bag. _Maybe he already went back to Chat Noir….He better not have taken my sketchbook!_ Panic filled me slightly as pulled out my notebook. It was then I heard Adrien let out a small noise of surprise as he opened his bag. He quickly closed it after he got his notebook and silently glared at it.

The teacher started to talk about some sort of story that we were supposed to read the night before. Which I didn't do. I sighed heavily as I started to doodle on the blank pages of the notebook. It wasn't long before my eyelids felt unusually heavy and I slowly drifted off. It felt like seconds later when I felt my self being shaken gently.

"Mari. Get up!" A voice said. "C'mon Marinette, we have to go." My eyes opened reluctantly to reveal Alya standing over me. "C'mon, we have to get to our next class."

"Next class?" I muttered lazily.

"Yes, let's go!"Alya had my bag on one of her shoulders. I quickly sat up when I realized I had slept through an entire class. I had never done that before.

Alya and I quickly moved to our next class, which went by much faster than I expected. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch.

"Nino and I are going to my place, do you want to come?" Alya asked.

"No thanks." I replied as we walked out of the school. "I'm still grounded, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. sorry. I guess I'll see you later." Alya slowly walked away from me, looking back a couple times to make sure I was okay. I sighed and focused on the ground as I started to walk back home. My mind could only focus on one thing as I walked, Adrien. The more I thought about him, the worse I felt about myself.

I was about to cross the street that lead right to my front door when suddenly-

"MARINETTE!" All I saw was black.


	12. Chapter 12

My hand was gripping onto some sort of black fabric as my head rested against something warm. I slowly raised my head up to see Adrien, sweaty and panting heavily. His head was turned to the side with his eyes fixated on something. It was then I noticed that his arms were wrapped tightly around my back. Curious as to what he was staring at, I slowly followed his gaze to see the final glimpse of red tail lights speeding away.

After Adrien was able to get his breathing under control, he looked down to me, loosening his hold on me. His green eyes staring directly into mine, they were full of concern.

"Are you all right?" He asked, his usually calm voice was wavering a bit. I continued to stare down the street, even though the tail lights were long gone. "Marinette?" My grip on his shirt tightened as I slowly pieced together what had just happened. I suddenly lost all strength in my legs and collapsed to my knees. Adrien followed, his arms still loosely around me. "Marinette…?" He muttered.

My mind was buzzing with thoughts while my heart rate increased. I felt my eyes started to water as I realized exactly what happened.

"Marinette." Adrien's voice brought me back to a semi-clear mind. I looked up to him, my tears starting to overflow.

"A-Adrien…?" I muttered, my lips quivering. "Adrien…" Tears streamed down my cheeks. I tugged on his shirt and pulled him closer as I buried my face in his chest. I started to sob loudly. "Thank you..." I felt him stroke my back as he pulled me in even closer, almost protectively. "Thank you." I sobbed harder. Adrien started to shush me.

"It's okay." He said, "You're safe with me. I'll protect you, Marinette." Adrien leaned closer to my ear. "Always." He whispered. I sobbing slowly stopped after he said this. I peaked up to him and saw he had a small smile on his face. "Are you okay now?" I nodded. Adrien carefully helped me to my feet. "I'll walk you home." He took a gentle grip on my arm and we began to slowly make our way across the street. I griped Adrien for support as my legs were still trembling in fear. He didn't seem to mind.

He walked me up to the front door, which suddenly swung open to reveal my mother, her face was full of worry.

"Oh, Marinette!" She cried wrapping her arms around me. "Are you all right?! I saw everything from the window upstairs!"

"I-I'm fine Maman." I replied, noticing Adrien pull away from me. "Thanks to Adrien." Mom immediately turned her attention to Adrien.

"Would you like to come inside, Adrien? It's cold out here!" She exclaimed. Adrien glanced over to the other side of the street for a second then looked back over to us.

"I shouldn't." He said. "I'm already late for a photoshoot." Adrien put an apologetic smile as he turned to leave. I quickly grabbed his wrist.

"Please…" I begged, "Just for a few minutes…?" Adrien looked at me, shock very evident on his face. I noticed his eyes evade mine for a second as he debated something within himself. His eyes then met mine again.

"I really shouldn't, Marinette." Adrien said. I pleaded with my eyes. He suddenly seemed flustered. "B-but… I'll come and check up on you later, okay?" I nodded and I slowly let go of his wrist. He smiled back to me. "I'll be back later." It was then Mom quickly rushed me into the house, closing the door as Adrien left.

We walked up the stairs and into the house.

"Sit down, Marinette. I'll make you some tea." Mom said, urging me to the couch. I took off my backpack and sat on the couch. I sighed heavily, noticing my hands were still shaking.

"I can't believe that just happened, Tikki." I whispered. "I-if it hadn't been for Adrien...I...I…" I stopped, feeling the tears coming back.

Mom then came into the room, holding a cup in her hands.

"Marinette, what's wrong?" She handed me the tea and sat beside me.

"I was just thinking." I replied, as she placed her arm around me and pulled me close to her.

"About what happened?"

"Yes… and about what would have happened if… Adrien-"

"Don't think like that, sweetie." Mom said, "It doesn't matter what would have happened, what matters it that you are safe."

"Yeah…" I took a sip of the tea.

"Why don't you stay home for the rest of the day? I think you need some rest." Mom said, "Go upstairs, I'll come check on you in a little bit."

"Okay." I stood up and slowly made my way up to my room. I immediately climbed up to my bed. Tikki flew out of my purse.

"Marinette?" She said.

"Tikki, I just want to rest."

"Okay." Tikki flew down to the table slowly, looking back every now and then. I stared at the ceiling of my room, my mind buzzed with all sorts of different thoughts. Before I knew it, I ended up falling asleep.

 _Tap, tap._ The odd noise broke into my peaceful state. Although it awoke me from my sleep, I chose to ignore it and turned to my side. _Tap tap._ There it was again. Only louder. I groaned and sat up. I glanced around my dark room, barely able to make out the stairs that lead down to my main room.Where was the tapping coming from? _Tap tap_. I heard the tapping from above me. They were coming from my hatch that lead outside.

Curiously, I opened the hatch, letting the cool night time air enter my room. I shivered and quickly grabbed a small blanket and wrapped it around me. I then climbed up to my balcony. There, I was met with a pair of glowing green eyes.

"Hello, Princess."

"Ch-Chat Noir?!" I questioned. I would barely make out his silhouette in the light of the moon. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about your near accident earlier today. I came to make sure you weren't hurt." Chat Noir replied.

"I'm fine." I said coarsely, "How did you hear about that anyway?"

"I have my ways."

"And what ways are those?" I asked, wrapping myself tighter in the blanket. I could barely see Chat Noir move one of his index fingers to his lips.

"I'm afraid that's a secret, Princess." I sighed.

"So…" I said, "Do you have an actual purpose of being here, or are you just here to annoy me?"

"Both." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm going back to bed." I turned back toward the hatch.

"Wait." I felt Chat Noir's cold leathered hand grip my wrist. "I have something for you." He reached into one of the pockets on his torso. "Here."

He handed it to me, and I immediately knew what it was.

"M-my sketchbook?!" I exclaimed, "Where did you find this?!"

"That doesn't matter." He replied. "It means a lot to you, right?"

"Yes, thank you!" I said, smiling.

"Ah! There she is." I felt Chat Noir's cold fingers grip my chin gently. "There's _my_ Princess." I looked at him questioningly. "You haven't been yourself the last few days."

"And how would you know that?" I asked. "Have you been stalking me?"

"What? Me? No, never! Let's just say, we happened to cross paths a few times the past couple days, and you seemed… depressed." He gently moved my face closer to his, our noses touched softly. "I hate to see you in such an awful state."

"Ch-Chat Noir…" I muttered, feeling my cheeks start to burn. "D...don't-"

"Don't what?" He responded, I could tell he had a smirk on his face. "Y'know, I'm still waiting for my reward."

"Y-your r-reward…?"

"From last time." Chat Noir snaked his other arm around me and pulled me closer to him.

"No," I said sternly, trying to push him away. "This… this is wrong!"

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." He moved his face closer, our lips were mere centimeters apart. I closed my eyes tightly, as I silently begged him to stop. I suddenly heard him chuckle and pull away. "You're so cute, Princess." I opened my eyes cautiously. Chat Noir was standing on the railing of my balcony. "I'll see you later." He quickly jumped off the railing and disappeared into the night.


	13. Chapter 13

I hummed happily as I finished putting up my hair into it's usual style.

"You seem in a good mood today." Tikki observed.

"Yeah," I replied, turning to her. "I've been thinking about what Chat Noir told me last night."

"How would you think of anything after your almost kiss with him?" Tikki teased.

"Tikki!" I exclaimed. She laughed.

"I'm sorry, Marinette, but I still can't believe you let him get that close to you!" She continued to laugh.

"Tikki, that's enough." I scooped her up in my hands and smiled at her. "I'm serious."

Tikki smiled back at me. "Okay, okay. I'll stop. But what did he say to you?"

"He told me that I haven't been acting like myself."

"So? I could have told you that!"

"No, Tikki. It's different. We don't really know each other, yet he was able to see how upset I've been." I replied, slowly slipping on a puffy pink coat and picking up my backpack. "If he could see it, and worry about me like that, then imagine how Alya feels. I don't want to make her worry about me anymore than she has to." Tikki nodded.

"I can understand that. But… are you sure you're okay to go back to school?" Tikki asked, "I mean, with what happened yesterday… you're still pretty shaken up about it, aren't you?"  
"I'll be fine, Tikki don't worry about it."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." I replied. I suddenly heard footsteps come up the stairs, I shoved Tikki into my purse. Dad came up with a plate of two chocolate chip muffins.

"Oh, Marinette. Are you going to school?" He asked. I nodded. "Then here, take these with you. Oh, and Alya's waiting downstairs, she was going to skip school to come take care of you, we told her it wasn't a good idea but…"

"Thank you, Papa!" I exclaimed, smiling. I took a muffin in each hand and walked down stairs. Alya quickly ran over and wrapped her arms around me.

"Marinette!" She cried, "I'm so sorry! I should have walked you home like I always do! Sorry! Sorry!"

"A-Alya" I stammered, "It's okay, really. I'm fine Alya." I tried to pry her arms away. Alya backed away slowly and adjusted her glasses, wiping her eyes in the process.

"I-I just can't believe that I nearly lost my best friend! And I wasn't there to help you."

"Alya, relax. I'm perfectly fine. See? Not a scratch on me." I smiled as I said this.

"Yeah, thanks to Adrien." She remarked, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Then she looked at me head on, eyes sparkling. "But you should have seen him after the lunch break! And I thought I was concerned!"

"W-what do you mean?" I asked. Alya grinned.

"The poor boy couldn't focus on anything in class! He looked super nervous the rest of the day. And Nino told me the only thing he would talk about was you and how you were doing! Adrien was totally worried about you!"

"W-w-w-hat?! N-n-n-no way! Th-that can't be right!" I exclaimed, feeling my cheeks burning "I-I-I'm sure he must have had something else on h-his mind!" Alya laughed, then grabbed the muffin I hadn't taken a bite out of.

"Maybe. Anyway, since you're already all bundled up, let's go to school. Then you can ask him yourself!" She bit into the muffin, then grabbed a purple coat that was sitting on the couch. Alya slid her arms into the sleeves. "Come on, Marinette." Alya grabbed my wrist and pulled me out the doors. We slowly began to walk to the school, very cautiously crossing the street. I hesitated for a moment, but Alya dragged me across. "It's too cold for that!" She said.

Alya and I arrived at the school and walked up the stairs. We arrived at our class and were met by a small bouquet of flowers on my side of our desk. We looked at each other. I walked over to it and picked up the flowers after I took off my jacket.

"All of us, well except Chloe, pitched in to get them for you." Nino said, sitting in his usual seat. The class surrounded me. I looked at Alya.

"Did you know about this?" I asked she just smiled.

"We're glad you're okay, Marinette." Ivan said.

"We're all happy nothing too serious happened to you!" Mylene said.

"Yeah, the class wouldn't be the same without your smile!" Nathanael said. The class turned to his, his face immediately turned as red as his hair. "Er- I-I- mean… uh.. I" Suddenly a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"I think we all know what you mean, Nathanael." Adrien said, patting his shoulder gently. "And I think everyone can agree." The students nodded.

"Thank you." I said smiling, holding the flowers close to me. "All of you!"

"Don't thank us. It was all Adrien's idea." Max said, adjusting his glasses. My head shot toward Adrien, he was avoiding eye contact with me. I smiled brighter and held the flowers closer to me.

"Oh, big deal!" I heard Chloe scoff. "Poor clumsy Marinette almost got hit by a car. I mean, come on, we should have been expecting something like this!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "What about all those times I was attacked by those awful Akuma? Why didn't I get flowers?"

"Uh, maybe because you _caused_ them!" I said.

"Hah! Yeah, right. How on earth could I cause such terrible things?!"

"You tell me." I heard Adrien mutter. I glanced at him, a little shocked he said such a thing.

"Everyone take your seats." The teacher said, unknowingly breaking up the argument. "Marinette, it's nice to see you." I smiled as the teacher started to write on the board.

I tired to focus on what the teacher was saying, but throughout the class, my eyes kept slipping from the board down to Adrien then back to the board. I was still finding it hard to believe that Adrien was the one who thought of getting me flowers. He really must have been worried. I sighed at the thought.

After class ended, Alya and I stood in front of the boys' shared desk. Alya and Nino were chatting away about a variety of different things. I turned my attention to Adrien, who was still, for some reason, avoiding eye contact with me.

"Adrien?" I asked.

"Hm?" Was the response I got.

"I- uh… I wanted to thank you… f-f-for, well-"

"You don't need to thank me, Marinette." Adrien replied, still not looking at me. I was about to say something back, when a screech from Rose caught my attention.

"Look, Juleka!" She exclaimed, pointing at the window. I moved to the window to see small white flakes flutter down from the sky. I felt myself fill with childish excitement as I let out a shriek of my own.

"Snow!" I exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. "Snow!" I turned around "Alya! Snow!"

"Oh, great." She muttered, with a small smile on her face. I raced up to her and placed my hands on her shoulders and shook her.

"It's snow, Alya! SNOW!"

"Yes, I heard you the first forty times." She pried my hands away.

"A fan of the snow, I take it?" Nino remarked.

"Are you kidding?" Alya replied, "I have to deal with this every winter." I laughed.

"I love the snow!" I said.

"We can tell." Nino said.

"Hey! We should do something this weekend!" I addressed Alya.

"Like what?" She asked. I thought about this for a while. We could build snowmen, make snow angels, have a snowball fight or… go ice skating. I smiled.

"Ice skating!" I exclaimed. Alya sighed.

"I should have seen that coming. Sure. We can go ice skating." I screeched in happiness. I then turned my attention to the boys.

"You two should come too!" I said. Nino grinned.

"Sounds fun. I'm in!" He said. The three of us turned our attention to Adrien.

"I… have a photoshoot." He said.

"Another one?" Nino asked. Adrien nodded.

"The winter line just launched so-"

"So this is the perfect opportunity to show it in action!" I said. For the first time that day, Adrien looked at me. "Don't you think? I mean, no one's going to buy winter clothing if they can't move freely in it. This is the perfect chance to show how easily you can move in it." He stared at me for a second, then smiled.

"Yeah… I'll talk to my father about it." Adrien said, as he stood up and tossed the strap of his bag over his head.

"Marinette, let's go, we'll be late at this point." Alya said, holding the bouquet of flowers.

"Yeah." I replied, and we headed to our next class.

After school Alya and I walked through the dancing white flakes, and I could tell I had the dorkiest smile on my face. Alya just stood there and laughed. We continued our walk to my house when we came to the crosswalk. I stopped dead in my tracks. Alya, who was now half way across the street, turned to me.

"Mari?" She asked. I would feel my legs trembling as I stared at the cross walk. _Just move._ I told myself. _It's no different from all those other times you crossed it. Just put one foot in front of the other…_

I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I glanced up to see Adrien standing beside me. My heart nearly stopped.

"I'll walk you over." He said. All I could do was nod. Adrien slowly began to move and we made our way to the other side.

"I'm sorry." I said, "It's stupid-"

"No, It's completely reasonable. Don't worry about it." Adrien replied. "How about this, I'll keep walking you home until you feel comfortable again, will that make you feel better?" I nodded, an obvious blush on my face. "Great. Well, I'll see you later, Marinette. Bye Alya." Adrien turned and ran back over to the other side of the street. Alya had a devilish smile on her lips as we went inside.


	14. Chapter 14

"I'm leaving!" I yelled, all bundled up in my pink coat with a handmade wool hat, with a pompom like ball on top, and mittens of the same color. "Oh, my scarf." I quickly ran back upstairs and grabbed the pink scarf off my table, wrapped it around my neck, then went back downstairs. "Okay, now I'm leaving!"

"Be careful, Marinette." Mom called, "And have fun!"

"I will!" I opened the door and went outside. I let out a happy giggle as I heard the crush of snow under my boots. I couldn't help but fill with nothing but excitement as the crunching continued when I walked down the street. I adjusted the heavy black backpack on my shoulders.

"Marinette?" Tikki said, popping her head out of my hat where she was hiding. "Why did you bring such a big bag?"

"My skates are in it." I replied. "Along with some extra gloves and a sweatshirt, just in case it gets really cold."

"Oh." Tikki replied, "But don't skating rinks usually have skates there?"

"Tikki, we aren't going to a skating rink!" I said happily. "Why go to a rink when there's a pond not to far from here?"

"That doesn't seem… safe." I laughed.

"It's fine, I go there every year. The city checks it and makes sure it's safe before anyone goes on it." I said, as I noticed the bus coming down the street. "I checked the results online earlier. It's fine." I adjusted my hat to hide Tikki as the bus stopped in front of me. I boarded it. I sat in a seat that allowed me to see out the large windows. The bus started to move.

After a few stops, where other passages either got on board or got off, we finally came to my stop. I jumped up and ran out the doors of the bus. I stood on the sidewalk, which was bordered by a long rail. I followed along the rail, finding where it broke. I saw a trail that lead down a hill, as my eyes followed it, they landed on a large pond. There were a number of people already gliding around on it. I ran down the path, my excitement building more and more as I continued to get closer.

The figures on the pond became clearer. It was then I saw Alya and Nino, holding hands as Nino struggled to keep his balance. They smiled and laughed at each other. I watched them from the edge of the pond.

"They really seem happy together." Tikki said, peeking out from my hat.

"Yeah." I replied, smiling. "I'm glad." Tikki giggled. Suddenly Alya noticed me.

"Mari!" She called, "Hurry up!" I placed my bag down and dug out my skates from it. I kicked off my boots and slipped on my skates, taking off their protectors as I did so. I glided onto the pond to join them. We skated as a trio for a few minutes, then I was off on my own. I felt the frigid wind blow through my hair and against my face. I felt like I was flying. It was different from feel I got when I was Ladybug, and was actually flying through the streets of Paris. This was more calming, more natural. I slowly let my mind wander into the clouds. After a while, Alya's voice brought me back down to the ground.

"Look who's here!" She called, pointing up the hill. I looked to where she was pointing to see a large silver limo parked at the top of the hill. One of the back doors opened wide, Adrien stepped out and looked around. He was dressed in a long gray coat that went down to about his mid thigh with black buttons. It also had a very prominent Gabriel Agreste brand logo on the left side of his chest. I noticed that he wasn't wearing a hat or gloves.

 _Isn't he cold?_ I thought to myself.

Adrien started to walk down the snowy path as he was followed by three people. One was a man who was tall and skinny, he had an odd looking beard and held a large camera in his hand. There was another man who was shorter than the other, but was much wider. Honestly his body looked more like an ape than a man. The third person was Nathalie, she held a large blue bag. They reached the edge of the pond. I skated up to them, followed by Alya and Nino.

"Dude, you actually made it!" Nino exclaimed.

"Yeah. It took a lot of convincing, though." Adrien replied, he then turned to me and smiled. "I used your reasoning, Marinette, and it worked!" It was then the tall, skinny man stared at me with an intense glare.

"So she's the girl who keeps making you late for shoots!" He said, glaring at me. I took a slight step away from him. Adrien sighed.

"Marinette, this is my photographer." Adrien said.

"I-I-It's nice to meet you!" I said, trying not to show how uncomfortable I felt with his close proximity to me. The photographer studied me for a little, and his harsh glare turned into a soft stare. He then turned around.

"Adrien! Get ready." The photographer said. Adrien nodded and Nathalie handed him the blue bag. Adrien placed the bag on the ground and pulled out a pair of skates. He quickly removed his boots and put the skates on. He cautiously moved on to the ice, wobbled a bit, then fell to his knees.

"Adrien!" I exclaimed, moving closer to him. "Are you okay?" Adrien looked up to me, an embarrassed smile on his face.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little rusty." He sat on his knees and rubbed the back of his head. "I haven't done this since I was little, after all."

He laughed awkwardly. I glanced at Alya, who gave me a little hand gesture that said, _Go ahead._ I smiled and skated in front of Adrien. I extended my mitten covered hand to him. He took it gently. I pulled him to his feet. It was then I noticed his hands were completely red. "Thank you." He said, once he was steady on his feet.

"Aren't your hands cold?" I asked.

"No, not really." It was an obvious lie.

"Hold on a second." I moved to the edge of the pond and reached for my bag, after I had it in my hands I quickly searched through it, finding the black gloves I had packed earlier. I went back over to Adrien. "Here." I handed them to him, "They're a little big for me, but they should fit you." He took them gratefully.

"Thank you," He said, as he slipped the gloves onto his hands. His fingers crawled into the slots. "A perfect fit." He smiled at me. Adrien tried taking a step forward, nearly slipping. I gripped his shoulders to prevent him from falling. He held the sides of my arms as he steadied himself. "Sorry. I'm much rustier than I thought I was."

"No! No!" The photographer said, "This won't do! Adrien, get some practice before we start shooting!"

"Ah, sure." Adrien replied. He then glanced at me. "M-Marinette… could you… reteach me?" I moved my hands from his shoulders to his hands and gripped them lightly.

"Sure!"


	15. Chapter 15

"M-Marinette! Y-you're going too fast!" Adrien exclaimed as I pulled him across the ice. The grip he had on my hand tightened. I laughed.

"Don't worry, Adrien." I replied, "I won't let you fall." His green eyes widened as I said this. "Well, I'll _try_ not to…"

"T-that's not very reassuring." Adrien replied, as worry filled his eyes. I giggled.

"Relax, I'm just teasing!" I said.

"Marinette…"

"Okay, okay." I stopped moving and let go of his hand. "Ice skating is easy. It's sort of like riding a bike, once you know how you never really forget. You just need to focus on getting your balance right." I turned around. "Watch my feet." I pushed from my left foot, then pushed from my right foot, I was slowly gliding across the ice. I stopped. "See? All you need to do is find your center of balance."

"Okay… I think I get it." Adrien started to move, wobbling a bit. I noticed his feet were both pointed inward

"Straighten out your feet." I said, moving over to him. I placed my hands on his shoulders to stop him as I fixed his feet with my own. "There. That should make things a bit easier." I glanced up to him and noticed the anxiousness in his eyes. _Is he really that afraid?_ I thought. I slowly gripped both of his hands, his eyes calming a bit. I started to move backward, pulling Adrien with me. "Just move when you're ready." I said.

I continued to drag Adrien across the ice as I noticed him start to push off with his feet. Eventually, he started to find his own rhythm with his movements. It was much faster than my own. I slowly let go of his hands. He looked at me.

"You've got it!" I exclaimed, as I stopped and watched him go. "I knew you could do it! Oh! Adrien, turn your dominate foot inward and shift your weight to the other side to stop."

"I got it." He replied as he did as I said, stopping slowly. Adrien then turned to me. "Wow, Marinette, you're a great teacher!"

"N-n-no! Not a-at all!" I said. "I-it's just you were rusty, I-I really didn't do anything. Anyway, we should probably go tell your photographer you're ready."

"No." Adrien said "Not yet. I want to skate a little bit more before I have to do the photoshoot." I smiled.

"Okay." I watched him go. Adrien moved fast, faster than I've ever seen anyone move. He weaved in and out of other skaters, but still being careful not to knock any of them over. Any time he would reach a clear patch of open ice, he would speed up. Adrien had the biggest smile on his face as he continued to skate. My heart fluttered when he turned to me, the smile still on his face.

"Adrien!" I heard the photographer call, waving him over with the camera. Adrien's smile vanished as he let out a sigh. He glanced over to me and jerked his head over to the edge of the pond, indicating me to go with him as he moved toward the edge. I followed slowly.

The photographer looked oddly excited and was practically jumping in the air as we approached him. Adrien and I looked at each other questioningly.

"Look at these!" The photographer said, show in us the screen on the camera. There were pictures of Adrien, and of me, and of us together. The photographer continuously scrolled through all the picture he had taken without our knowledge. "I've haven't seen Adrien smile that brightly in a while." He stopped on a particular one of mine. "And I've never seen such naturally talented model! You, Mademoiselle Marinette, are very photogenic." His words caught me by surprise.

"M-me?! No, I'm not really!" I replied, feeling a blush come to my cheeks.

"Oh, I beg to differ!" He showed me the picture. It was a closeup of my head, cutting off at me shoulders. I was turned to the side but my head was facing the direction of the camera. I had a slight smile on my face. "I would love to work with you sometime!"

"Why not now?" Adrien asked. I shot him a confused look. He smiled. The photographer thought about this for a little then nodded his head.

"A brilliant idea! The theme for this shoot will be… 'Winter Love'!"

"W-W-WHAT?!" I exclaimed, the blush on my face very obvious by now. "N-n-n-no! I-I can't! I'm r-r-really not a model I have no talent for it! I-"

"Nonsense." Adrien said, "You saw the picture, Marinette, you'll do great." I shook my head rapidly.

"She's right." The photographer said. "She can't do it." I let out a relieved sigh. "She isn't wearing any Gabriel Agreste brand clothing."

"I can fix that." Nathalie said. "We have an extra coat in the bag. Mr. Agreste asked me to pack it." She quickly started to dig through the bag. She pulled out a coat almost identical to Adrien's except it was red with black buttons.

 _It just HAD to be that color scheme, didn't it?_ I thought, as I sighed.

"I-I really don't think I can-" I felt Adrien grip my wrist. I glanced at him. I could tell by the look on his face he didn't want to do this one alone. "Okay." I said more to him than the photographer.

Nathalie handed me the coat a I removed my pink one and replaced it with the red one.

"It's so soft!" I said.

"Your mittens." Nathalie said. I looked at her. "You can't wear your mittens, scarf, or your hat."

"O-oh. Okay." I quickly pulled off my mittens and tossed them to the edge of the pond. They landed on my pink coat. I reached for my hat when I remembered that's where Tikki was hiding. "Tikki." I whispered, as quietly as I could. I felt something slide down my neck and into the back of my coat. I then removed my hat and it joined my mittens and coat, along with my scarf.

"Perfect! Let's get started!" The photographer started to direct us out to the middle of the pond. I could feel my anxiety acting up as we got closer to the center. I started to breath heavily. Adrien grabbed my hand. That didn't help much.

"Don't worry." Adrien said, "They're just photos. It may be a little awkward at first, but you'll do fine. I _know_ you will." I suddenly heard a click coming from behind us.


	16. Chapter 16

(A/N: I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING YESTERDAY! I had to finish a school project and didn't have time to finish this chapter… anyway, expect another one later tonight. Enjoy!)

"Alya!" I exclaimed, noticing both she and Nino had their phones out, and were snapping pictures. They laughed as the photographer glared at them.

"If you two continue to distract my models, I will have to ask you to leave." He said. Nino and Alya looked at each other, shrugged and then waved to us as they headed over to the edge of the pond. The photographer stood still and watched them turned to us. "Now, let's get started, shall we?" He started to instructing us to move into different positions. The first one he had us do wasn't all that bad The photographer had Adrien and I stand back to back and look at him. He took several photos from different angles, and when he decided he was satisfied, he made us change our poses. We did this a few times and honestly by this point I was starting to get used to it and was actually starting to enjoy it, that was, until this next pose. Adrien gently placed his forehead against mine as our fingers intertwined. Adrien's cheeks were tinted pink while mine were the same color as the coat I was wearing.

"Smile" Adrien whispered. I glanced up to him as I nervously bit my lip. I didn't dare to open my mouth, as I knew whatever I said would come out as a stuttering mess. "After this set we can take a break, if you want." I nodded. Adrien closed his eyes, took a breath, and a smile formed on his lips. I followed his lead, and began to hear the camera clicks and shutter noise all around us.

"Beautiful!" The photographer said as he moved around. "Absolutely stunning!" The noises from the camera stopped. Adrien slowly let go of my hands and backed away from me. "You two would make the absolute cutest couple!"

"I know, right?!" Alya's voice called from by the shore.

"A-Alya!" I shouted back, my voice wavering.

"Yeah," Nino yelled, "Make a move, Adrien!"

"Nino!" Adrien's voice wavered just as much as mine did. Our friends laughed as they tormented us.

"Yes, yes. That's quite enough. Let's go do the next set." The photographer readied his camera as he looked around.

"Actually," Adrien said, "Could we take a break? This is Marinette's first shoot, after all. She seems a little whipped out." The photographer glanced at me then nodded.

"Very well. Adrien, let's get some solo shots of you."

"All right." Adrien sighed, he then turned to me. "Come join us when you're ready, Marinette." I nodded. Adrien and his photographer moved to a different part of the pond.

I skated over to the shore and sat in the snow, not caring if my clothes got wet. I yawned loudly.

 _Modeling is hard work, I don't know how Adrien does it. Especially since he has so many other things he has to do._ I thought, as I stretched out my arms. I looked over to where Adrien was skating for the photographer. The photographer made him stand in awkward positions, and have him skate slowly in order to get a picture. I could tell Adrien was forcing each and everyone of his smiles as he posed. I felt bad for him, he was obviously not enjoying himself. I decided to cut my break short and stood up. However, before I started to head toward Adrien, I saw Alya and Nino. I glanced to the snow on the ground and felt a mischievous smile come to my lips.

I slowly bend down and scooped some of the snow into my hands. I rolled it into a baseball sized sphere and looked back to Alya. I took aim at her and let the snowball fly. However, It wasn't Alya I hit.

"Adrien!" I exclaimed, racing over to him. Adrien had skated in front of Alya right after I had thrown the snowball. It ended up hitting him in the back and he fell to his knees. "I'm so sorry! I was aiming for Alya and-" I was suddenly hit in my chest with a pure white ball, which shattered upon impact. I looked up to Adrien to see him by the shore, he was scooping up some snow. He quickly turned around and threw another ball of white at me. I quickly blocked it with my arm.

"Oh, it is SO on, Adrien Agreste!" I said, quickly moving back to the edge of the pond.

"Bring it, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" Adrien replied with a playful smirk on his face. "Geez, why does your name have to be so long?" I threw a snowball at him. It hit his shoulder. He threw one back at me.

This small war between us continued, as we both threw snowballs at each other and laughed. It wasn't long before I felt something hit my back. I glanced behind me to see Alya and Nino had joined the fight. Eventually, everyone else on the pond joined as well. It started out as a free for all, but slow morphed into two teams on the different sides of the pond. It was me, Alya and six other people on one side and Adrien and Nino with seven others on the opposite side. Snowballs were flying all over.

"TEAM LADYBUG!" Alya screamed as she threw a snowball.

"That is not our team name." I said, handing her another one.

"It is now!" She replied. I sighed as I made more. The war continued on for nearly an hour, until most of the people got tired and decided to call it a day and go home. Alya and I started to skate over to the boys.

Nino, for some reason, had Adrien in a headlock and was yelling, "Admit it!" over and over again. Adrien laughed and struggled to get out of the headlock.

"Let me go!" Adrien cried.

"Not until you admit it!" Nino replied.

"Okay! Okay! I'll admit it!"

"What do you admit?" Nino asked, teasingly.

"Marinette's really pr-"

"Marinette's what now?" Alya asked, as we got closer. Nino sighed and released Adrien.

"N-nevermind…" Adrien muttered, Nino let out a frustrated sigh.

"I'm hungry." Nino then said, "What about you guys?"

"Yeah, I could go for some lunch." Alya replied. "We should go to that new restaurant up the street." Nino and Alya removed their skates and put their snow boots back on. "Are you two coming?" I shook my head.

"I'm not all that hungry, actually." I said, starting to untie my skates.

"Me either, but… I could go for some hot chocolate." Adrien said, glancing over to Nathalie. She nodded her head. He smiled. "There's a cafe not too far from here. Marinette… do you want to come with me?" I stared at him, shocked. Then I glanced over to Alya who was rapidly nodding her head.

"Uh… y-yeah! Sure!" I replied. Adrien and I removed our skates. I shoved them back into my bag. I pulled out my hat and scarf and put them on. "Oh, what do you want me to do with this coat?" I tugged on the collar of the red coat I was wearing. Adrien looked at me for a second, then turned his head away.

"Keep it." He said.

"Really?! Are you sure that's okay?!" I asked.

"Yeah… I'm sure my father won't mind." Adrien finished putting his boots on as I placed my bag on my shoulders.

"Adrien, there's only a half an left hour before your piano lesson-"

"Yes. Nathalie, I know." Adrien replied, "I'll be back before then."

"You aren't taking the limo?"

"Why would I? It's just up the street." Before Nathalie could say anything else, Adrien gripped my wrist tightly and started power walking away. I found this odd as I watched Adrien pull me along with him. The way he was moving was like he was trying to get away from something, something he didn't want to be a part of. Suddenly, it hit me; he was running. He was trying to run away. I didn't know from what. I didn't from whom. All I knew was Adrien Agreste was running, and not looking back.


	17. Chapter 17

(A/N: As promised, the second chapter for today!)

I blew gently on the steaming cup of hot chocolate and took a small sip. I felt it burn the tip of my tongue and quickly pulled the cup away from my face.

"Too hot?" Adrien asked, his cheek resting on his fist, as he turned his attention from the window to me.

"Just a little." I replied, gently placing the small cup on to the saucer it was provided on. Adrien just gave me a small smile, then turned his attention back to the window. Silence fell between us again. It had been like this since we got to the cafe. I sighed.

"What's wrong?" Adrien asked, glancing at me.

"O-oh, nothing!" I replied. It was then a waitress came up to us.

"Um… e-excuse me?" She addressed Adrien. "A-aren't you Adrien Agreste? W-would it be too much to ask for an autograph?" Adrien didn't even face the girl.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not Adrien Agreste." He replied. The girl looked confused, muttered a quick apology, and scurried away.

"Adrien?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"Sorry. I just…" Adrien stopped and studied the window for a few seconds. "Sometimes I… just need to get away from it all, you know?" I shook my head, not really understanding. Adrien forced a small smile onto his face. "Every once in awhile, I need to stop being Adrien Agreste, the son of Gabriel Agreste, the model, the excellent student, and the perfect child. Sometimes I just need to be…Me."

"I… still don't really get what you mean." I muttered. Adrien chuckled.

"There are two sides to everyone, Marinette. Even me." Adrien picked up his cup and took a sip. "The only thing is… I can't show that side to anyone." He stared down into his cup, a certain longing in his eyes.

"You can show me." He looked up to me.

"I-I'm not sure you'll like that side of me…"

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"It's… very different than how I usually am."

"Adrien, you're my friend. That will never change, no matter which side of you I see." Adrien's eyes widened in surprise.

"D-do you really mean that?"

"Of course I do!" I said. Adrien smiled and continued to drink his hot chocolate.

After a while, the waitress suddenly returned and placed a small strawberry crepe on our table.

"Oh, uh,we didn't order this." I said.

"It's from the young man at the table by the door." The waitress replied, glancing over to the direction of the door. I glanced over in that direction to see a boy a little bit older than Adrien and I with dark hair and brown eyes who was staring directly at me. I waved awkwardly to him and a large smile formed on his lips.

"Marinette, I need to head back." Adrien said abruptly. He stood up from the table and placed some money on to it. "Let's go."

"Oh, uh, okay." I stood up and started to follow him out the door. As we passed the table where the other boy sat, I could see Adrien glare at him slightly.

When we got outside, the first thing Adrien did was firmly grab my wrist and drag me down the street.

"A-Adrien?" I asked. He suddenly stopped and let go of my wrist.

"I'm sorry, Marinette." Adrien said.

"For what?"

"For-" before he could finish his sentence, I slipped on some ice and would have fallen flat on my face had Adrien not grabbed my arm "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, standing up right. Adrien started to laugh.

"How is it you are so graceful on skates, but the second you take them off you become the biggest klutz alive?"

"Hey!" I exclaimed

"Relax, I'm just teasing!" Adrien said, mockingly as he threw the exact words I had said earlier back at me. I scoffed, jokingly and started to march away. I turned around to see Adrien holding a snowball in his hand and closing the distance between us.

"No, no!" I said turning around and speeding away, unfortunately Adrien was faster. He gripped my wrist and pulled me into him. "L-let me go!" I tried to pull away from him.

"No." He said with a mischievous smirk on his lips, he held my wrist tighter. Our eyes suddenly met and we stared at each other for a few seconds, then suddenly, a painful freezing feeling slid down my back.

"Adrien!" I screeched, quickly pushing him to the ground and trying to shake out the snow from my back. I heard him laughing. I glared playfully at him. "It's not funny!"

"It's very funny." He replied, still on the ground. I sighed and extended my hand to him. He took it and pulled me down on top him. We laughed.

"So…" I began, as I looked down to him. "Is this the other side of you?" Adrien smirked in a very familiar and sarcastic way.

"What do you think?"

"I… like it." I said, feeling a blush form onto my cheeks.

"Y-you really do?" I nodded. Adrien smiled at my response. It was then Adrien's phone started to ring. "Nathalie." He didn't even have to check. "I should head back."

"Yeah." I stood up and Adrien followed.

"I'll see you soon, Marinette." Adrien began to walk down the sidewalk. I watched him leave an then turned around in the opposite direction and walked to the bus stop.

Today is a day I will never forget.


	18. Chapter 18

About two weeks passed since we all had gone ice skating, and everything had been pretty normal around me… a little too normal. There hadn't been a single Akuma attack the last few weeks and it was starting to worry me. Things were never this quiet. However, there was another thing that was bugging me. Lunch break had just finished, and Adrien was still not in school. I had asked Nino during lunch where Adrien could be and he was just as clueless as I was.

I had just sat down at my desk when the door to the class room slammed open to reveal Adrien with an excited spark in his eye and a huge smile on his face. He turned to me.

"Marinette!" He exclaimed, excitedly as he raced over to my desk.

"Adrien where have you been?" Nino asked, only to be completely ignored.

"Marinette, I have something to show you!" Adrien placed his bag on my desk and started to shift things around in it.

"What is it?" I asked, my curiosity peaked.

"Okay, so my father gets an early copy of each magazine that features his line so he can go over things and make any last minute changes to it. So, we were all expecting the typical cover photo of me, right? Well…" He pulled out a thin magazine and showed me it. "Look who's on the cover!" My eyes widened in disbelief as I reached for the magazine.

On the cover was a black haired girl with big blue eyes who was dressed in a long red coat with black buttons and smiling brightly as she guarded herself from a snowball. Next to the girl were large red words that read, 'Gabriel Agreste's new mystery model… Who is she?'

"N-no way!" I exclaimed, "I'm sorry, your father must be upset…"

"No, actually. He's really impressed! In fact, he wants to meet you, Marinette!" Adrien replied, "He asked me to invite you to the party he's throwing next weekend. It's a black tie event, so-"

"Adrien… I-I don't think I can. I mean, it would be wonderful, but that's not really my type of thing. Besides, I don't own a dress that would be considered appropriate for a black tie event." Adrien thought to himself for a minute.

"That could be a problem…" Adrien turned away from me for a second, then looked back. "What about that dress you were working on when I went to your house?"

"Th-that one?! No way! It's way to childish for an event like this!" I replied.

"Then change it." Adrien said. "Marinette, I really want you to come to this party. I think you'll have a lot of fun. And besides… I may have convinced Nathalie to hire your parents to cater it."

"You did what?!" I exclaimed. Adrien just smiled innocently at me. I sighed. Now I had to go. "That was very sneaky, Adrien. Very sneaky." He laughed.

"Well, you should know, I'm a very sly cat." I shot him a look of confusion and he immediately sat down in his seat, suddenly becoming silent. The teacher walked in and began class.

Later that night, I stood on my balcony and let out a loud sigh as I leaned over the freezing railing as I looked up to the night sky.

"Marinette?" Tikki asked, popping out of my red coat, "Is something wrong?" I shook my head.

"It's Adrien." I replied as tugged on the jacket.

"What about him?" I sighed again.

"I'm just worried about him, that's all." I replied, stretching out my arms. "He's came into school late almost every day this week. He may have seemed happy when he came in today, but while he was walking me home he barely spoke to me. There has to be something going on… I just wish he trusted me enough to tell me what it was. Maybe I could help in some way." Suddenly, the alarm on my phone went off. I glanced at the screen of my phone and quickly turned off the alarm. "Time to go, Tikki." Tikki nodded and was sucked into my earring.

After my quick transformation into Ladybug, I ran across the neighboring rooftops trying to reach my destination in a decent amount of time. I got there in less than three minutes.

"Not bad." I muttered, as I stood on the top of a building that stood next to the Bourgeois Hotel. I stretched out my arms again and sat on the edge of the roof with my legs dangling off. I waited for a good ten minutes before I heard the loud tap of feet landing behind me. "You're late." I said, turning my head to see my partner.

"I'm sorry, My Lady. I had fallen asleep before my alarms went off." Chat Noir replied, taking a seat next to me and resting his arm on his knee.

"You've been using that excuse a lot, Kitty." I said.

"Well, it's true. I've been busy lately."

"What in the world could you possibly be busy with?" He chuckled.

"Since you asked, I happen to be a very important model." Chat Noir gave me a cunning smile.

"Yeah, right." I replied, standing up. "Come on. Let's start patrolling."

"Why? There hasn't been an attack in almost three weeks. Why don't we just sit here and relax." Chat Noir laid back and rested on the rooftop while he looked up to me. "C'mon, My Lady, relax a bit! Maybe we could finally have that date I've been begging for." I sighed.

"This isn't the time to be messing around."

"I think it's the purrfect time." I rolled my eyes.

"Chat."

"Alright, alright." He hoped up onto his feet. "I'll take the area by the Tower and park."

 _By my house?_ I thought. "Why that area?" I asked.

"No reason. I just happen to like this area." And with that, he ran away. I crossed my arms.

"He's going to see me, isn't he?" I giggled and shook my head. "Good luck with that, you Silly Kitty." I turned and started in the opposite direction.


	19. Chapter 19

"M-Marinette? Are you all right?" Mom asked as I slowly made my way down the stairs.

"Yeah, I'm fine." My voice was deeper, and more breathy than it usually was. I sniffled a little.

"You don't look fine." She replied. "Are you sure you want to go to school today?"

"Maman, I'm okay, honestly." I lied. It was true, I was feeling a little under the weather, but it wasn't anything I couldn't push through. I slowly put on my red coat.

"Okay. But please, if you feel like you need to come home, just call me, I'll come and get you." Mom handed me a small raspberry pastry.

"Will do." I replied, taking a bite out of the pastry. "I'll see you later!" I quickly left the house and headed toward the school, trying to ignore the pounding against my skull. I held my head as I finished my pastry.

"Marinette?" Tikki asked, popping her head out of my purse.

"I'm alright, Tikki." I said, "Maybe I stayed out a little too long last night. I'll be okay." I continued my walk into the school and up to my classroom. I took off my jacket and sat down at my desk. I placed my head on the cool desktop. I sighed contently.

I suddenly felt a small tickle in nose.

"Ah- ACHOO!" I quickly covered my mouth

"You sound awful." Alya said, placing her bag down on the desk as she sat next to me.

"Thanks." I replied, sarcastically, as I held my head.

"Maybe you should go home." I shook my head

"I'll be fine. It's just a little cold." Right after I said this, I broke out into a coughing fit.

"Marinette, please don't argue with me on this. It's obvious that you have more than just a cold!" Alya placed her hand against my head. "Marinette, You're burning up! Miss Bustier!" The teacher came over to us. "Marinette's not feeling well."

"Marinette, if you aren't feeling well, you really should go home." The teacher said. I shook my head. She sighed. "Fine, if you don't want to go home, then you should relax in the nurse's office. Alya, will you take her?"

"Yeah." Alya stood up, "Come on, Marinette." Alya helped me to my feet and grabbed my backpack.

"I'm fine, really-" another coughing fit.

"That doesn't sound good." Nino said, as he and Adrien entered the classroom.

"That's what I've been saying!" Alya said. "But Marinette's too stubborn to go home, so I'm taking her to the nurse." Adrien came up to me.

"I'll take her." He said. Alya stared at him, then nodded and handed him my backpack. "Let's go, Marinette." Adrien grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the classroom. "You really shouldn't have came in if you weren't feeling well."

"I know… I just didn't want to miss school." Adrien chuckled.

"I would kill to get a day off of school! Although, it wouldn't be much of a day off, now that I think about it…" Adrien shook his head, and held my hand tighter. "Geez, your hand is really warm." He stopped walking and looked me straight in the eyes. I could tell he could see my watery eyes, my red face, and wobbly legs.

I felt him placed his hand around my back and his other arm reach under my knees. Adrien lifted me off my feet.

"A-A-Adrien?! W-w-what are you doing?!"

"You really shouldn't be walking." Adrien replied simply.

"Put me d-down! I-I'm fine!" I exclaimed.

"You're not, Marinette. It's clear that you aren't! You need to stop pushing yourself so hard, otherwise…" Adrien stopped.

"O-otherwise what?" I asked.

"Otherwise… you may break." I looked at him questioningly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You're fragile, Marinette. If you don't take time to relax and let some stress go, you'll burn out. You'll feel like you're useless to everyone around you. Like you are nothing but a shell of who you used to be…"

"Adrien." He glanced down and smiled at me.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll be fine, if you rest." I heard Adrien tap on a door with his foot. "Excuse me?" There was no answer from the other side. He sighed and pushed the door open with his shoulder. The lights in the office were on, but the nurse was nowhere in sight. Adrien gently placed me onto the bed. "I'll stay here until the nurse comes, okay?" I nodded.

Adrien sat on the edge of the bed and things grew silent between us. My eyes were slowly beginning to close on me as my mind drifted off.

"Hey, Marinette." Adrien suddenly said.

"Hm?" Was the only thing I could say.

"Where, uh, where were you last night?" He asked, "I dropped by your house and your light was on but…"

"Out…" I mumbled, my breathing started to slow.

"Out? Out Where?"

"By… the… Bourgeois…" My eyes closed heavily and darkness enveloped my mind before I could finish the sentence.


	20. Chapter 20

"Marinette!" The voice broke into the darkness. "Marinette! Wake up!" The voice was becoming more urgent. "Come on! We need to go!" I slowly opened my eyes. "Marinette!" I glanced to my side and saw Tikki. "Marinette, we have to help!"

"H...help?" I asked, my voice raspy. "Who?"

"Chat Noir! We have to help Chat Noir!" Tikki replied.

"Ch...Chat…?"

"There's an Akuma outside the school right now!" Tikki cried. I immediately sat up.

"Now?!" I exclaimed, feeling light headed and dizzy. "But... there hasn't been one in weeks! Why now?" Tikki shook her head.

"I have no idea! But if we don't do something now, Chat Noir isn't going to last much longer!" Tikki pointed to the window. I slowly stood up and made my way over to the window. There I saw Chat Noir, who was kneeling on the ground and looked as though he was out of breath. The snow all around him was completely gone and instead there were odd burn marks on the ground. I was wondering why when I saw him swiftly jump out of the way as a seemingly random fireball came toward him. I glanced over to the direction from where the fireball came from. There stood a tall, skinny man who had an odd beard. He had orange hair and an unnatural blue glow to his skin, along with weird looking clothing and blue boots with tiny wings on them. In the man's hand was a large black camera. It was then I realized who it was.

"It's Adrien's photographer!" I exclaimed. Tikki nodded. I turned to her. "We have to save him." I quickly moved backward, making sure I was out of sight from the window. "Tikki, let's go!" Tikki was sucked into my earring and the transformation sequence began. before I knew it, I was no longer Marinette and was now Ladybug. Unfortunately, my illness didn't disappear with Marinette. I was still a little dizzy, but I was able to move a little closer to the door.

Suddenly, a crash from the window sent glass flying in my direction. I quickly covered myself with my arms and peaked up to see the large window of the nurse's office smashed open and Chat Noir laying at me feet. He quickly jumped up and glared out the window.

"L-Ladybug? Where have you been?! What are you doing in…" Chat Noir stopped, glanced at the now empty bed then back at me. "Where's the girl who was in that bed?" He asked.

"O-oh, her? I told her to hide and-" I suddenly broke out into a coughing fit and fell to my knees.

"Ladybug?!" Chat Noir joined my on his knees, placing a hand on my back.

"I-I'm fine." I replied, as I struggled to stand up. Chat Noir extended his hand and helped me up.

"Are you sure?" Before I had a chance to answer, a large fireball came barreling toward us. "Watch out!" Chat Noir wrapped his arms around me and jumped out of the path of it. We landed a few feet away from the open window. We both turned our attention to the broken window where the photographer now standing.

"Where is she?" The man practically sang. "MY beautiful discovery."

"Who- who is he talking about?" I asked Chat Noir.

"I have an idea, but I'm not positive." He replied, "Where did that girl go? The one I told you about earlier."

"She went to go hide! I already told you-"

"Where?!" Chat Noir nearly yelled it.

"I-I don't know!" I replied.

"Oh ho ho, hiding is she?" The photographer said, "Too bad, she's going to miss the shoot of her life!" He raised his camera to eye level and pressed down on a small button. A large ball of red and orange started to form on front of the lens

"Move!" Chat Noir grabbed me again and we were now falling out of the broken window. We landed on our feet as the photographer looked down to us from the broken window. He suddenly turned around and moved away from the window. "My Lady, we have to do something! He may hurt the other students if-" Chat Noir turned to me and noticed me fall onto my knees. I could hardly breath. "Ladybug?"

"Ch-Chat Noir… I-"

"Stay here." He said. "It's obvious you aren't okay. I'll lure him back out and when I do, have your lucky charm ready. The Akuma is in his camera."

"N-no! I can't let you do that by yourself!" I tried to stand up, but my legs wouldn't move. Chat Noir placed his hands on my shoulders.

"My Lady, you aren't feeling well. If you go in there, you may get hurt. I can't bare to watch that happen, so please, trust me on this." I looked at him, then nodded. Chat Noir smiled back at me, then stood up. "I'll be back with him in a little bit, be ready." He left with that.

After a while, the students of the school came running out, all frightened and screaming.

"Ladybug!" They screamed as they saw me. "Help us!" I simply nodded. It was then Chat Noir and the photographer came crashing onto the sidewalk. And suddenly, Chat Noir was in a tug or war battle for his staff. I took this opportunity.

"Lucky Charm!" I threw my yo-yo into the air and suddenly, a small joy buzzer fell into my hands. "What in the world…?" I quickly looked around. Then I understood what to do. "Chat Noir! Let go of your staff!" He shot me a confused look.

"Are you sure?!" He asked. I nodded. Chat Noir sighed, then quickly backed away from the staff. At that moment I raced up to the photographer and pressed the joy buzzer against Chat Noir's staff. The sudden shock of electricity stunned the photographer for a second, which I used to kick his camera out of his other hand. "Chat Noir!"

Chat Noir caught the camera as I kicked myself away from the photographer, taking the staff with me.

"Hey, trade you!" Chat Noir said, tossing me the camera as I threw him his staff.

I smashed the camera onto the ground with all my strength and out flew a small black butterfly. I traced a line upwards on my yo-yo, the two sides opened like a ladybug's wings. I started to spin it around by body, "I'll free you from evil!" I threw the yo-yo at the butterfly, it scooped it up and returned to my hand. I pressed down on it and the butterfly flew out. "Bye, bye, little butterfly!" I then threw the small joy buzzer up into the sky, "Miraculous Ladybug!" a storm of red hearts came and repaired everything that had been broken. The crowd of students let out a cheer.

I let out a sigh of relief when it was all over. Chat Noir stood next to me and held out his fist. I gently tapped my fist against his. I suddenly felt my legs lose strength and I fell into his arms.

"Ladybug!" Chat Noir exclaimed, slowly sinking to his knees. "Are you okay?!"

"Y-yeah…" I muttered, the students gathered around us. I heard the beeping of my earrings. He must of heard it too.

"I have to get you out of here." He said, frantically searching around. I couldn't say anything in protest before we were suddenly flying through the air to an unknown destination.


	21. Chapter 21

"I-I can't believe it…" I muttered, leaning against the wall outside my room. "This whole time, it's been her." I covered my face in my hands. I had just witnessed something I shouldn't have. "I had my suspicions… but I somehow convinced myself it wasn't her." It happened when I was carrying Ladybug to a safe place. "It was so obvious…" Ladybug had fallen asleep when a bright pink light flashed and suddenly, it was no longer Ladybug that I held in my arms. I panicked and brought her to my house. "Plagg… how long have you known?"

"I've always known." Plagg replied, "Kwami can easily tell who are Miraculous holders. They give off a certain wave that other humans don't." I sighed.

"So, you've known this entire time and never thought to tell me?"

"Nope!" Plagg replied, "After all, is that what she would have wanted?"

"No…" I said. She wouldn't have wanted that, her identity is very important to her. "What am I going to do now?" I sank down to the floor, hiding my head in my knees. "There's no way I can possibly face her without seeing Ladybug…" My heart swelled as a sudden lump formed in my throat. "If I tell her the truth, then she may get mad…" I sighed. "What if I told her that I loved her? Would that make a difference?"

"Don't do that." An unfamiliar voice said. I looked up to see a small red creature floating above my head. "It's not Marinette you love, you love Ladybug."

"But Marinette _is_ Ladybug, Tikki." Plagg said. The red creature sighed.

"I know that, Plagg. I'm her Kwami." Tikki then turned to me. "Adrien, just because Marinette is Ladybug, doesn't mean you love her."

"W-what do you mean?" I asked.

"Think about it like a movie. Ladybug is just a character that Marinette plays. It's mask that she uses to hide behind during a performance. It's true, they are the same person, but you fell in love with the mask itself, not the actor behind it." Tikki replied, "If you were to tell Marinette that you love her, and she finds out it's because you know she's Ladybug, she'll be heartbroken."

"Why's that?" I asked. Tikki sighed.

"She likes you, Adrien. A lot. And it's not because you're Chat Noir either, she doesn't even know about that, it's because you're Adrien." Tikki said. "Please, don't do it. I don't want to see Marinette get hurt like that." I looked to the floor. I didn't want to see that either.

"But, what am I supposed to do? I can't pretend that I don't know! I'm sure whenever I look at her I'll just see Ladybug." I buried my face in my knees and pulled at my hair. "I don't know what to do!"

"Do what Adrien would do." Tikki replied. I looked up to her again. "Nothing has to change between you two. You two can still be like friends you have been up until this point. Nothing's changed for Marinette, she won't know anything's different between you two. So, what would Adrien do if it were just Marinette laying sick in his bed?"

"If it were just Marinette?" I thought about this. What would I do if it were just Marinette? "Soup." I replied. "I'd make her soup." And that was what I was going to do.

I picked myself up from the ground and started to walked to the kitchen. I quickly grabbed a small pot and placed it onto the stove. I turned on the stove and grabbed some vegetables from the fridge.

"I didn't know you could cook." Plagg remarked, fishing out some Camembert.

"Only soup." I replied, pulling out a knife from one of the drawers. "I used to make it all the time with mom." I stopped for a second, shook the thought out of my head. I started to cut up the vegetables.

After I finished making the broth, I added the vegetables and noodles and let them boil for a while. Once I felt as though I had let it cook long enough, I grabbed a bowl and filled it to the brim with soup. I placed it on a small tray with handles on the side and lifted it up, being careful not to spill it any where.

"Plagg, grab a spoon for her." I said. Plagg groaned loudly and pulled out a silver spoon from the drawer. He flew over and sat on the tray, holding the spoon. "You're going to have to move."

"I know, let me rest until we get there!" Plagg laid down on the tray. I rolled my eyes and started to walk back up to my room. As I drew closer, I moved one of my hands to the bottom of the tray and balanced it. Plagg flew into the collar of my shirt.

I knocked on the door to my room and heard a cute high pitched squeak. She was awake. I placed my hand on the doorknob but hesitated. I took a deep breath.

"It's just Marinette." I reminded myself. "Just Marinette." I slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.


	22. Chapter 22

"W-where am I?" I muttered as I sat up. I gripped the sheets that covered me and looked around the room. I was still light headed, but I could tell I was in an unfamiliar room.

It was a fairly large room, with a couch, a large flat screen TV and a computer with what looked to have five monitors. The wall of the room were bare, with no posters or pictures on them at all.

"Marinette!" I heard Tikki exclaim. She flew into my arms. "You're awake!"

"Y-yeah." I replied. "Tikki… what happened? Where are we?"

Suddenly, a soft knock came at the door. It startled me and I let out a shriek of surprise as I grabbed Tikki and shoved her under the gray covers. The doorknob turned and the door was opened slightly. A familiar face poked out from around it.

"Hey." Adrien said, fully coming into the room and closing the door with his foot. In his hands he held a small silver tray with a white bowl on top. "Glad to see you're awake." He was avoiding eye contact with me as he spoke.

"A-Adrien?" I asked, as I watched him place the tray down on the computer desk. "W-what are you doing here?" Adrien glanced at me.

"What am _I_ doing here?" His tone was sarcastic. "You're sleeping in my bed." I blinked at him.

"Your…" I looked down to the sheets I was gripping and felt a sudden rush of embarrassment. "W-w-what?! I-I-I'm s-sorry! I-I-" I started to uncover myself.

"Woah. Don't get up." Adrien gently placed his hands on my shoulders. "It's fine."

"A-are you sure?" He chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm the one who put you here, after all."

"Oh…" I muttered. "But why am I here, anyway?"

"O-oh, well I- uh…" Adrien began to stutter. I look at him questioningly, as I found this odd. "There- there was an Akuma attack at the school! Ladybug and Chat Noir took care of it. It was really awesome to watch, I'm surprised you were able to sleep during all of it!" Adrien began to laugh awkwardly. "L-Ladybug did a really good job today! I'm sure Chat Noir wouldn't have been able to beat it without her!"

"No… I have a feeling that one was all Chat Noir." I saw his eye widen when I said this.

"A-anyway…" Adrien continued, "They sent the students home early because of it… but you were still in the nurse's office, so I went to go get you and bring you home."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Believe me, I tried! But you just wouldn't wake up, so I was going to just carry you home, but… your parents weren't there s-so I brought you here."

"O-oh… Thank you." I muttered "But...I-I'm sorry about this."

"Don't worry about it." Adrien extended the small bowel from the tray to me. "Nathalie made it." He said. I took the bowel and placed it onto my lap.

"Soup?" I asked. Adrien handed me a spoon as he pulled his computer chair closer to the bed and sat in it.

"Yeah, I told her you weren't feeling well, so she decided to make you some."

"Oh, well tell her I said thank you!" Adrien nodded. I slowly dipped the soup into the bowl. I carefully pulled the spoon back out, blew on it, and slurped up the soup.

"Mm! Wow! Nathalie is a really good cook!" I saw Adrien smile to himself.

"Yeah." He replied. He grew silent as he watched me eat the soup. After I had finished the soup, Adrien took the bowl and spoon from me and placed it back onto the tray. "How do you feel?"

"Much better!" I lied.

"Good…" Adrien replied. "I'll bring this back to the kitchen, and then I'll bring you home, okay?" I nodded.

"O-oh, uh, Adrien?" He glanced at me as he picked up the tray. "Thank you…" I noticed his cheeks turn a light pink.

"It's not a problem, Marinette." Adrien turned away from me. "Oh, your backpack and coat are on that couch. I'll be right back." And with that, he left the room.

"Tikki." I muttered, she popped her head out of the covers. "Does he seem to be acting… weird to you?"

"What do you mean?" She responded.

"I mean, he didn't look me in the eye once when he spoke to me. Why is that?"

"I don't know… it was pretty odd." Tikki said. I sighed.

"I should probably text Alya, she might worried." I uncovered myself and slowly made my way to the couch where my backpack laid. I rummaged through it until I found my phone. I pulled it out and saw I had about twenty missed calls and about forty texts. All from Alya. I sighed, and started to scroll through the texts.

I suddenly came across a text with a video attached. I played it. The video showed me, as Ladybug, in Chat Noir's arms. Chat was frantically looking around then suddenly started to jump in a direction away from the school.

"I-I left with Chat Noir?" I muttered. "But that doesn't make sense… Adrien said he came and got me. The only way I could have left with Chat and still wound up here would be if Adrien was-" I immediately shook that thought out of my head. "No… there's no way Adrien could be Chat Noir, right, Tikki." She didn't respond. "Tikki?"

Suddenly, the door to the room opened, Tikki hid in my shirt.

"Ready to go?" Adrien asked, as he slid on his coat.

"Uh… yeah."I replied, shoving my phone into the pocket of my jeans. I quickly put on my coat and grabbed my backpack. We both walked out the room, down the stairs and out the front door to a silver car that waited for us.


	23. Chapter 23

I secretly stared at Adrien out of the corner of my eye as he looked out of the window. I scanned his hair and eyes, comparing them to Chat Noir's. They were very similar. Adrien's hair was the same shade of blond as his, and his eyes were the same as well. I sighed. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to be possible. But, then again, there were plenty of guys in Paris who were blonde haired, green eyed, and allergic to feathers...right?

"Something wrong?" Adrien asked, "You've been staring at me since we got into the car."

"O-oh, h-have I?" I replied quickly looking down to my phone. "Um… Hey, h-have you seen this video?" I extended my phone to him and held it sideways. On the screen there was a short video of a small golden lab puppy who was playing in the snow. I giggled as I watched it.

"Cute." Adrien said, a small smile on his face.

"Oh! This one!" I taped on a video with a hamster on it. All the hamster did was run across a hardwood floor in a clear ball. "Awww!" After that one had finished, I tapped another hamster video. I heard Adrien chuckle.

"Do you like hamsters?" Adrien asked.

"Yes!" I replied, "I love them! They're just so cute and fluffy and tiny and-"

"Okay, I get it." Adrien chuckled again.

"S-sorry. I just… I love them so much!" I turned my attention back to the video, when suddenly Alya's picture flashed on the screen. "Oh geez." I muttered as I tapped on the green phone icon and held the phone up to my ear. "Hi, Alya." I greeted.

"AHHHH!" She screamed, causing me to pull my phone away from my ear. "WHERE ARE YOU?! ARE YOU OKAY?! YOUR PARENTS SAID YOU DIDN'T GO HOME AFTER SCHOOL WAS RELEASED! WHAT HAPPENED?!"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it, I was in good hands!" I glanced to Adrien. "A-anyway, why-"

"DID YOU SEE THAT VIDEO I SENT YOU?! THE ONE OF LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR?!" This seemed to grab Adrien's attention.

"Yeah." I replied. "I saw it. What about it?"

"Well, it's obvious Ladybug wasn't in good condition when they left, and her earrings were about to go out. Sooo.. I was thinking, Ladybug might have transformed back before Chat Noir could leave her. Which means Chat Noir could know Ladybug's identity!" She stated.

"O-oh really?" I asked. That meant if Adrien truly was Chat Noir, there's a chance he could know that I was Ladybug.

"Yep! Which means all we have to do is figure out who Chat Noir is and we'll be one step closer to Ladybug!" Alya laughed loudly. "We'll find her soon enough!"

"Y-yeah…" I replied, glancing at Adrien.

"I'll come by your house later, we can talk about it then, if you're feeling up to it. Oh and I want to meet the new employee!"

"W-what new employee?" I asked.

"You didn't know your parents hired some college kid to help cater the Agreste's party?"

"This is the first I'm hearing about it!" I exclaimed, "They didn't even tell me they were looking for extra help!"

"Well, apparently they hired this guy earlier today. Your mom told me about him when I spoke to her earlier. According to her, he's really good at decorating. She put him on the same skill level as you when it comes to it!"

"No way!" I exclaimed, "Could he really that good a decorator?"

"I don't know! That's why I want to go see!" Suddenly, Alya called to someone away from the phone. "Okay, Nino! I'm coming!" She then addressed me again. "I have to go, Mari. I'll drop by the bakery later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Bye." I hung up the phone and let out a sigh.

"She sounds happy about that new employee." Adrien said.

"Seems so." I replied. "Honestly, I'm quite curious myself. My parents never mentioned looking for any extra help for the party." The mention of the party suddenly reminded me of something. "My dress!" I exclaimed, "I totally forgot about it!"

"Marinette, there's still a week before the party, that should be plenty of time to-"

"No, not to redesign AND resew everything!" I tugged at my hair.

"Calm down. You'll be fine." Adrien placed his hand on my back. "If you need held, I could probably…" Adrien stopped, "find someone to help you."

"No, no. It's fine. If I start on it right when I get home and work on it everyday after school, I might be able to finish it. Besides, you have enough on your plate already, I don't want to add another thing you have to balance." That made me realize something. There was no way Adrien could be able to be Chat Noir. He was far too busy with everything else. But, if that was the case, then how did I end up at his house? I continued to think about this when the car stopped. I glanced out the window and saw we were stopped outside of the bakery. "Thanks for the ride." I quickly opened the door and grabbed my backpack. "I'll see you tomorrow, Adrien"

"Marinette." Adrien reached for my arm before I closed the door. "If you still don't feel well tomorrow, don't come into school, okay? You shouldn't push yourself."

"Adrien, I feel fine. Don't worry about me! I'm a lot tougher than you think." I replied smiling.

"I know." Adrien muttered. I looked at him and he shook his head. "Later, Marinette." Adrien closed the door, and the car drove off.

"What did he mean by that?" I asked myself. Still thinking about this, I slowly went inside. There I was met with a semi familiar pair of brown eyes.


	24. Chapter 24

"Hello!" The unfamiliar voice greeted, "Welcome to Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie, may I help you?"

"Huh? Oh, uh...No. I'm- ah… I'm sorry, who are you?" I asked, the black haired boy looked at me questioningly.

"Oh, Marinette, welcome home!" Mom appeared from the other room and came over to me. "Charlie, this is our daughter, Marinette." She turned to me. "Marinette, this is Charlie, he's going to help us prepare for the Agreste's party."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you, Charlie." I said. Charlie moved out from around the counter and walked over to me.

"It's _very_ nice to meet you too, Miss Marinette." He replied. I quickly pulled my hand away from him, as I felt quite uncomfortable.

"Marinette, are you feeling any better?" Mom asked.

"A little…" I replied, "But I have a headache, so I'm going to go up stairs." My mother nodded as I quickly moved away from Charlie and toward the stairs. "Alya's going to come over later."

"All right." Mom replied. "I'll bring you girls some tea later."

"Okay." I replied.

I walked up the stairs and went to my room where I collapsed onto my chaise, not even wanting to walk the extra stairs to my bed. I groaned as I looked at the unfinished dress that hung on my mannequin.

"I guess I should get started on the redesign, huh?" I sluggishly dragged myself to my desk and opened my sketchbook. I turned to a page where a sloppy drawing of what was currently slouched over my mannequin was. I stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out how to change it to make it seem presentable at the party, yet still match the theme assigned during my design class. "How…?" I muttered.

I ran through many ideas, ones that shortened the dress, ones that made it longer. Ideas that added sleeves, ideas that got rid of the sleeves completely. I sketched some of the ideas onto the blank pages of the sketchbook. I tore out the designs that I didn't like or didn't think were appropriate. I ended up with just three final designs. Two long dresses, and one short one.

"Hey, Tikki!" I called, "Which one do you like better?" Tikki flew over and landed on my sketchbook.

"Wow, Marinette, they're all great!" Tikki replied, "I can't decide!"

"Tikki, you're supposed to pick your favorite! Otherwise, I won't know which one to do." I replied. Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. "Tikki! Hide!" Tikki quickly flew into my shirt as the hatch to my room opened.

"Hey, girl!" Alya greeted, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, hi, Alya." I replied as she walked over to me. "I'm just figuring out how to redesign my dress." I showed her my sketchbook. "Which one do you like better?" Alya took my sketchbook out of my hands and studied my sketches.

"This one!" Alya pointed at the short dress.

"That one?" I asked "You sure?"

"Yep! You'll look totally gorgeous in it!" Alya handed my sketchbook back to me.

"You think so?" I asked.

"I know so. And I think Adrien will know so too!" Alya nudged me with her elbow. I giggled. "So…" A mischievous smile formed on her face. "What's going on between you two anyway?"

"W-what do you mean?!" I asked, Alya laughed.

"Oh, come on, Marinette! Don't you think I haven't noticed! He's been all over you lately!"

"I don't know what you're talking about…" I muttered

"Seriously, Marinette? Walking you home, getting you those flowers, taking you to the nurse, inviting you to that party, and not to mention your guys' date to that cafe!"

"That wasn't a date." I corrected her.

" _Sure_ it wasn't." Alya smirked. "And I'm _sure_ Adrien wasn't totally jealous of that guy who tried flirting with you when he bought you that crepe either." I looked at her. She shrugged innocently. "Adrien tells Nino everything." I sighed and shook my head.

"That guy wasn't flirting with me, I don't think." My mind wandered back to that day and to that boy with the black hair and brown eyes. I stood up in sudden realization. I _knew_ I recognized him."Charlie!" I exclaimed.

"Charlie?" Alya asked.

"The new employee my parents hired."

"Oh, THAT'S his name. Yeah, he greeted me on the way in. What about him?"

"He's the one who bought me the crepe." I replied.

"Did he really?"

"Yes. I'm sure of it!"

"Ooh, drama alert!" Alya teased, "Imagine how Adrien will react!"

"Alya!" She laughed.

"Just picture it though! Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the center of a love triangle between the one and only Adrien Agreste and an older college student, who would she choose?"

"Alya, stop!"

"Aww, come on! It'd be a good story!" Alya replied.

"Maybe for you!"

It was then my mother came up with two cups of tea.

"What's all the yelling about, you two?" Mom asked, with a smile on her face.

"It's nothing." Alya replied, "Just talking about Marinette's love life."

"Alya!" I exclaimed.

"Oh really? So you're talking about Adrien, then?" Mom replied.

"Maman!" She and Alya laughed. "That's it I've had enough. Out!" I started to push the two out of my room.

"Hey! I just got here!" Alya replied.

"Out!" I repeated as they stepped down onto the stairs. "I have my dress to work on. You both are distracting me!" I quickly closed the hatch to my room before they attempted to get back in. I let out a defeated sigh and moved over to my mannequin. I pulled the dress off of it and started my alterations.


	25. Chapter 25

"Marinette, quickly, take the cake out of the oven!" Dad exclaimed as he moved a tray onto the counter. I did as he said and removed a round tin from the oven. "Put it with the others!" I placed the tin on the counter, next to two other ones. "Let it cool before giving it to Charlie."

"I know." I replied, as I removed my oven mitts. "I'll go help him." I moved out to the store front where Charlie was staking macaroons in a display case. I walked over to him.

"Hello, Marinette." He said when he noticed me.

"Need some help?" I asked. Charlie looked around.

"Yeah, Sabine asked me to decorate roses onto those cupcakes," Charlie jerked his head toward the other side of the room where a plate of cupcakes were.. "But, I'm afraid roses aren't my specialty, so-"

"I'm on it!" I replied. I turned around and walked over to the plate of unfrosted vanilla cupcakes that were sitting on the counter. I picked up the large bag of red frosting that sat to the side of the plate and carefully started to squeeze the frosting out a little at a time. I slowly maneuvered the bag around the top of the cupcakes. It took me a while, but eventually, each cupcake had a large red rose neatly on the top. I sighed in relief as I finished. It was then the jingle of the door's bell could be heard.

"What? You're not well enough to come to school, but you're well enough to work in the bakery?" Alya said as she entered through the front door. She was followed by two other people.

"Hi, Alya." I greeted her, then noticed the two boys following her.

"Ooh, those look good!" Nino exclaimed, obviously noticing the cupcakes I had just finished working on.

"Yeah," Alya replied, "Hey, Adrien! Marinette's really good at this stuff, huh?"

Nino nudged Adrien with his shoulder. Adrien looked unsure of what to do.

"Are you kidding?" Charlie replied, turning in our direction. "She's absolutely amazing at it!" He smiled at me.

"O-oh… Thanks, Charlie!" I said, turning my attention back to my friends. "So, what are you guys doing here?"

"What do you mean 'what are we doing here'?!" Alya exclaimed, "We came to make sure you were all right! Oh, and to give you this." Alya handed me a small notebook. "It has all the notes we took in class, along with the homework that was assigned and…" Alya continued to talk as I noticed Nino talking to Charlie on the other side of the room with Adrien standing next to him. They all seemed to be getting along.

Suddenly, a loud beeping came from Alya's phone that drew all of our attention to her. Her eyes suddenly widened in excitement.

"Woah, no way!" Alya exclaimed, frantically searching for something. "Someone turn on the TV! Now!" I looked at her on confusion. "NOW!" She repeated.

"Okay, okay!" I replied, quickly reaching under the counter to grab a small black remote. I pointed it at the small television that hung in one of the corners of the bakery. The screen flashed brightly to reveal something that made my eyes widen in horror. It was Ladybug, standing in front of a crowd of people as she waved to the camera. The word _Live_ was shown in the bottom corner. "What?!" I exclaimed.

"What's wrong, Marinette?" Alya asked.

"N-nothing." I replied, not taking my eyes off the television. When I was finally able to get my mind back into working order, I noticed Adrien glance at me then back up to the screen, then to me again. He looked to be as confused as I was for some reason. "Um, I'm going to head upstairs real quick." I started to run up the stairs.

"Wait, Marinette!" I heard Alya yell after me. I ignored her and climbed into my room, locking the hatch behind me.

"Tikki!" I called, walking over to my computer. I pulled up the newscast. "How is this possible?" I asked as Tikki flew over to me. She looked at the screen of my computer.

"I-I don't know!" Tikki exclaimed. "But we have to do something!"

"My thoughts exactly!" I replied. "Tikki, let's go!"


	26. Chapter 26

"Marinette!" Alya yelled, pounding on the door. "Marinette, open up! Come on!" Nino and I watched her from the bottom of the stairs. "Mari!"

"Alya, calm down a bit. Maybe she just needed to lay down for a know she hasn't been feeling well." Nino said. Alya crossed her arms.

"Yeah but…I have a feeling that there's something up with her." She replied.

"How do you know?" Nino asked.

"I'm her best friend, Nino." Alya climbed down the stairs, "I know her better than anyone." She pulled out her phone and pulled up the newscast. "Aww, I missed the rest of the Ladybug coverage!" She let out a frustrated sigh.

"It'll be fine. Why don't we head back down stairs and get some of those cupcakes!" Nino said, placing his arm around Alya's shoulders.

"Yeah, okay." Alya replied, glancing up to the small hatch that lead up to Marinette's room.

"I want to talk to Charlie some more too. He seems like a cool guy." Nino said, "Right, Adrien?"

"Uh, sure." I replied.

"I have a few questions for him." Alya replied, starting to move toward the door. Nino and I followed her and walked down to the bakery where we saw Charlie still staring up at the television.

"Why are you still watching that?" Alya asked.

"Look for yourself." Charlie replied.

The three of us looked up to the television. What we saw was two Ladybugs in hand to hand combat.

"WOAH!" Alya exclaimed. "But I just checked this!"

"They just started broadcasting it." Charlie responded, "Who would've thought we'd ever see two Ladybugs fighting against each other."

"I have to get down there!" Alya said, "The Ladyblog needs this type of excitement!" She then turned toward the front door of the bakery.

"Wait, Miss, I think it would be best if we all stayed here." Charlie said. "We don't know what Ladybug is up against here. Who knows what would happen if you went out there all willy-nilly."

"He's right, Alya." Nino said, "I think it would be best if we all stayed here." Alya sighed.

"But… the Ladyblog…" She muttered. She looked up to Nino. "Fine. I'll stay here." Alya turned her attention back to the television. It was then one of the Ladybugs were thrown through the air, landing roughly onto the ground. Everyone gasped loudly.

I was unsure whether or not that Ladybug was the imposter or not, but I wasn't willing to sit back and watch. I quickly thought of a plan to help me get away from the others. I pulled out my phone and pretended to text on it.

"Hey, guys. I have to go. My father just rescheduled my piano lesson." I lied.

"Really?" Nino asked, crossing his arms. "I swear, your dad is totally against any downtime for you!"

"Yeah, well I have to go." I left the bakery before Nino could say anything else. I quickly found a secluded alleyway.

"Plagg," I said, holding my shirt open so he could fly out. "Come on, we have to help Marinette."

"Don't you mean Ladybug?" Plagg replied with a smirk. I looked at him questioningly.

"What did I say?" I asked.

"Marinette." I stared at him for a second, then shook my head.

"Whatever, same person." I replied.

"Are they?" Plagg teased.

"We don't have time for this. Come on, Plagg!"

Plagg was swiftly sucked into my ring as a bright green light formed around my body. A thick black mask appeared around my eyes, giving them a cat like shape and glow. I moved my hands over my head and two cat ears formed. A green light ran down my body and replaced my typical clothing with a form fitting leather suit. The green light faded and I peeked my head out of the alleyway.

"Now to find Ladybug!" I said to myself, as I quickly jumped onto the roof tops. After a while, I saw two red figures moving across the tops of buildings. I followed them until they finally stopped and faced each other. I joined them at this point.

"Well, well. Today must be my lucky day." I said, as I hung my staff over my shoulders. "Two Ladybugs fighting for my love."

"Chat!" The Ladybug closest to me exclaimed. She was then wrapped in the wire of the other Ladybug and thrown across the rooftop. The other Ladybug then glared at me.

"Something tells me that you're not my Ladybug." I said to her. She continued to glare at me. "Now, it's not very nice to glare at others-" Suddenly, I was flying through the air and landed roughly next to

"Chat Noir, are you okay?" Ladybug asked, placing her hand on my back.

"Y-yeah." I replied. "That caught me by surprise, that's all. What is with her?!"

"I'm not sure, this isn't like any other Akuma we've fought before." She replied.

"What do you mean?"

"She seems to know all of my moves, all my strategies, and… all my insecurities, she uses them to her advantage." Ladybug responded.

The Akuma started to walk toward us, but suddenly stopped. Odd looking bumps appeared all over it's body.

"W-what is she doing?" I asked.

"I thinks she's… transforming."

We stared at it in awe as the red on the Akuma's costume turned black, it's hair turned blonde and cat ears sprouted from the top of it's head. It was no longer a Ladybug look alike we were up against.


	27. Chapter 27

"Okay… Now what?" I asked, staring at the other Chat Noir that now stood just feet away from us.

"No idea." Ladybug replied, "There's no way this is just a normal Akuma, if it even is one."

"What do you mean 'if it is one'?"

"There's a chance this couldn't be an Akuma at all. It's too abnormal, this could be something completely different. " She looked at me, her blue eyes full of concern and confusion.

"If that's the case, how are we going to beat it?" Ladybug shook her head. " I guess we'll have to wing it then." I stood up and extended my staff. "Y'know, I've already had to deal with one guy pretending to be me. Let's hope you're a better fake than he was!" I charged at the look alike, my staff raised over my head. I suddenly felt a stinging pain on the right side of my chest and I found myself face down against the roof.

"Chat Noir!" I heard Ladybug yell. "Look out!" I struggled to my knees as I saw the Akuma racing over to me, it's staff raised in the same manner mine was. I frantically searched for my own staff, which was nowhere in sight. He drew closer to me, his eyes held a murderous glint. The other Chat Noir was now only a foot away from me and swung his staff. I closed my eyes and braced myself for an impact that never came. I peeked my eyes open to see the Akuma's arm wrapped up by Ladybug's yo-yo.

"Chat Noir, move!" Ladybug yelled, as she struggled to pull the fake way from me.

The Akuma turned his attention to her and gripped the wire and pulled her closer to him. Once she was close enough to him, he wrapped his hand around her neck. Ladybug gasped for air.

"Let her go!" I screamed as I charged at the Akuma again. With its free hand, the Akuma stopped me and kicked my stomach with so much force that it sent me flying back to the other side of the roof.. My claws scratched along the rooftop as I tried to stop my movements, unfortunately I couldn't stop myself in time before I fell off the edge of the roof. I gripped onto the edge and tried to pull myself back up. The Akuma came closer to me, practically dragging Ladybug with him.

"Pathetic." The Akuma spat as he glared at me. He raised his foot and stomped it down on my hands I winced at the pain. "You're useless, Chat Noir! You can't even help the girl you claim to love!" The Akuma glanced over to her and tightened the grip on her neck. I heard her painful gasps for air.

"Mar- Ladybug!" I called up to her. She looked down to me, her eyes were watering as she clawed at the hand around her neck.

"Ladybug would be better off without you!"

"Ch-Cha-" Ladybug struggled. That was it. That was the moment my instincts took over.

I swung my body over on to the roof, kicking the fake's chest in the process. It must have caught him off guard, as he stumbled backward, releasing Ladybug as he tried to gain his balance back.

Ladybug fell to her knees and started to cough. Hearing her cough was like music to my ears as I stood in front of her, not taking my eyes off of the Akuma. After a while, Ladybug stood up next to me.

"You okay?" I asked, sparing a quick glance at her.

"Y-yeah." She panted. "I'll be fine." It was then we noticed that the Akuma held Ladybug's yo-yo in his hand. "Great. Where's your staff?"

"I, uh… have no idea." I responded. Ladybug looked at me, sighed, then turned to the Akuma. "So, what do we do from here?"

"I'm not sure. I can't use my Lucky Charm if he has my yo-yo and there's no way he'll give it back willingly."

"Well then, we'll just have to take it from him by force!" Ladybug nodded as we both ran toward the Akuma.

A sudden flurry of punches and kicks flooded down onto the other me, who somehow was able to dodge every attack we threw at him. Somehow, he was able to grab my arm and twist it behind my back. I suddenly heard a slight crack from my arm and an unbearable pain jolted through my body.

The Akuma kicked me away from him and turned in the opposite direction of us. He then started to run across the rooftops, accidentally dropping Ladybug's yo-yo, and disappeared from sight. I held my arm close to my chest as I stood up.

Ladybug walked over to her yo-yo and picked it up.

"Chat Noir, we have to go after him, who knows what he's-" She turned to me. "Kitty?" When she noticed me holding my arm she raced over to me. "Are you all right?" She asked, gently holding onto my arm. I winced at her touch. "Chat…" Ladybug said, "I think your arm is broken!" She looked up to me.

"What? No way! I'm indestruct- OUCH!" I screamed when she applied more pressure to my arm.

"Kitty, this is bad. We have to take care of this."

"No, don't worry about me, I-"

"Don't worry about you?!" Ladybug exclaimed, " Don't worry about you?! You're my partner! How on earth am I not supposed to worry about you when you have such a serious injury!" My eyes widened in shock. I was surprised that the usually calm and collected Ladybug was all worked up over me getting hurt. "If only I had some bandages." Ladybug then glanced at her yo-yo. "I wonder…" She gripped her yo-yo tightly then threw it up into the air. "Lucky Charm!" Suddenly, a roll of red bandages with black spots fell from the sky.

"I didn't know you could do that." I said.

"Neither did I."

Ladybug slowly started to wrap my arm with the bandage.

"These will last until my transformation wears off. After that, promise me you will go to the hospital or something." She tied off the bandage.

"That won't be necessary I'll be fine." I said.

"Chat." Ladybug placed her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. "Promise me… Please." I stared at her for a bit, then sighed.

"Alright." I replied. "For you." She smiled.

"Thank you." She replied, "Be careful. And keep your eyes out for that Akuma." Ladybug hesitantly turned away from me, but moved down off the roof.


	28. Chapter 28

((A/N: I am so incredibly sorry for the late update! My entire computer crashed and is now not turning on, so I now have to write everything on my tablet, but it takes longer to transfer google documents into word so I can upload them… I may or may not have to resort to updating every other day instead of every day. If it has to come to that, I'm really sorry! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!))

I sighed as I looked in the mirror at the red marking that was around my neck. I hadn't realized he had that strong of a grip on me.

"I hope Chat's all right." I muttered while I rubbed the mark gently as I figured out what I was going to use to hide it.

"I could just wear my scarf…" I thought out loud. "But Alya may get suspicious." I shook my head as I opened the door of the bathroom and walked out. "Maybe a turtleneck?" I looked through the drawers of my dresser and pulled a brown turtleneck. "This'll have to do." I quickly got dressed and put on my red coat. "Tikki, come on."

Tikki flew out from by my bed and hid in the hood of my coat. After that, I opened the hatch of my room and walked down the stairs.

"Leaving already?" Dad asked as he saw me.

"Yeah." I replied, "I promised Alya that I'd meet up with her early if I was feeling better."

"Oh, alright. Grab a muffin or something from the bakery before you leave. Charlie and your mother are down there."

"Charlie's already here?" I asked. Dad nodded. I found this a little odd that Charlie had shown up at such an early time, especially since he was a part-time worker.

"He's quite the hard worker! I think I may keep him around after the we're done catering the party!" Dad smiled to himself.

"He's really nice." I said. "I like working with him."

"That's good! I'm glad that you two are getting along!" Dad then turned his attention back to the dishes he had been washing. "Oh, you should probably get going!"

"Yeah, I'll see you later, Papa!" I turned and opened the door that lead down to the bakery.

"Good morning, Marinette." Charlie greeted when I got downstairs.

"Good morning!" I replied, grabbing one of the warm blueberry muffins that sat on the counter. I took a bite and glanced around. "Where's Maman?"

"Oh, Sabine went out to get some more supplies. Where are you off to so early?"

"School." I replied. "I promised my friend Alya that I'd meet up with her."

"Ah, I see. Will you be coming back for lunch?" Charlie asked. I glanced at him with confusion, as I thought it was an odd question.

"Um… I'm not sure." I replied, moving toward the door. "I might be." I opened the door. "Bye, Charlie." I closed the door behind me."That was… odd." I muttered. I quickly shook my head and began my walk to school.

When I got at the school, Alya hadn't arrived yet and it was too cold to wait for her outside so I went inside and sat at my desk. I put my head down on the desk and waited. A few of my classmates came over to me to talk for a little bit, but when their friends arrived they ditched me for them.

" Hey, girl!" Alya greeted as she sat beside me, "Actually decided to come in today?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better." I replied, hiding my neck deeper in the turtleneck. Alya must have noticed this as she started to laugh.

"Is it too cold for you?" She asked.

"Uh, Yeah." I said. Alya pulled out her phone.

"So listen to this," She began." Apparently that ladybug we saw on the news yesterday could have been a total fake!" Alya pulled up a picture on her phone, it was on of the newscast.

"O-oh, really?" I asked, not looking directly at her phone.

"Yeah! Also, when you were upstairs in your room and completely ignoring me, Nino AND Adrien, another Ladybug showed up!" She dragged her finger across her phone and showed me another picture of the newscast. "I'm not sure which one was the real one, if she was even there, but they had an epic battle… from what I could see anyway. They jumped up onto the roof and the news station lost sight of them. But not only that, rumor has it that Chat Noir showed up as well, but one of the Ladybugs was so strong that not only did she get away, she broke his arm too!

 _Where on earth does she hear this stuff?_ I thought to myself.

Alya sighed, "If only Charlie had let me leave!"

"Charlie didn't let you leave?" I asked.

"No… he was afraid I would get hurt or something, so he had me stay in the bakery."

"Really?" I asked. _I'll have to thank him later_.

"Yeah, Adrien got to leave though!" Alya pouted. This caught my attention.

"Wait… Adrien left?" I asked. Alya nodded.

"Yeah, not long after we saw the second Ladybug. He had a piano lesson or something." I stared at her, my eyes wide. She looked at me questioningly. "What's wrong?" I turned away from her and stared directly at my desk.

 _There is no way…_ I thought. _There's just no way. He had a piano lesson. That's why he left. That had to be why he left. It had to be. There was no way that he was Chat Noir. That wasn't possible it just wasn't-_

The door of the classroom opened and my eyes widened in disbelief as Adrien walked in.


	29. Chapter 29

I couldn't take my eyes off it. The hard green object that surrounded his left arm. People have been asking him about it all morning, each time his story would change a little. He was lying. He was hiding the true reason his arm was broken. I sighed softly to myself as I continued to stare at it.

That was it, the evidence sat right in front of me. There was no more hiding it from myself. No more finding ridiculous reasons to convince myself otherwise. No more telling myself pretty lies.

Adrien was Chat Noir. And that was the ugly truth.

"Hey, Mari." Alya whispered, as nudged my arm with her elbow. I glanced at her. "Did you see Adrien's arm?"

She was joking, right?

"What about it?" I whispered back.

"You know how I said there's a rumor going around that Chat Noir's arm is broken? Don't you think it's a too big a coincidence that Adrien came in with a broken arm? Not only that, but left the bakery before Chat Noir was said to have shown up?"

"Where are you going with this?" I knew exactly where she was going with it.

"Well, do think Adrien could be…" She stopped and gave me a look that indicated she wanted me to finish the sentence. So I did.

"Chat Noir?" Alya smiled and nodded. "No way."

"What? Why not?" She pouted.

"He's too busy with everything else that he has to do." I replied, using the same reasoning that I convinced myself with. Alya thought about this for a second.

"Good point." She said, "But, that could all just be a cover!"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Adrien may be lying about more than just how he broke his arm!" Alya turned her attention back to her school work, a large smile plastered on her face. The teacher's voice brought my attention to the front of the class.

"Within the each group you will be paired off, then each pair will write a paragraph, then after the time limit the pairs will switch papers and continue from where the others left off." Miss Bustier said, "After the final time limit, we will read each story out loud. Now, for the groups." She looked down to the paper she held in her hands. "Rose, Chloe, Nino, Max and Ivan. Mylene, Alya, Sabrina, Kim, and Juleka. And finally, Alix, Adrien,Nathanael, and Marinette. "

Adrien quickly turned to me and smile when he heard our names called, but his smile faded when he saw me avoid eye contact with him.

"Okay, get into your groups and I'll start the timer." I stood up from the desk and started to move toward the back of the room as the other students moved to their groups.

"Marinette." I heard Adrien call from behind me. I felt him grip my wrist. I turned to him. "You haven't said a word to me all morning. Is something wrong?" I something in about him caught my attention. His green eyes were clouded over, and a clear expression of pain was displayed on his face.

Was his arm hurting him? No, somehow I knew that wasn't it. I studied his expression, trying to figure out what could possibly be hurting him. Then I suddenly realized something. Was it me? Was I the one hurting him? My heart sank at the thought of this.

"Are you mad at me?" Adrien asked, gripping my wrist a little tighter. His eyes slipped to the floor. "D-did I do something wrong?"

"N-no! Of course not!" I exclaimed, "I'm fine! Just a little tired is all." I smiled at him. He looked up.

"Are you sure? Because if I did something to upset you, Marinette-"

"You didn't do anything, Adrien." I said. Adrien opened his mouth to reply, but Alix beat him to it.

"Yeah, yeah, just kiss and make up you two! We have an assignment here!" She said, crossing her arms as she stood next to Nathanael's desk.

"Oh, right, sorry." Adrien replied, quickly letting go of my wrist.

Adrien and I quickly joined Alix and Nathanael in the back of the classroom.

"Okay, so who's paired up with who?" Alix asked.

"I think Marinette and I would be a good team." Adrien replied. I shot him a quick glance, then turned back to Alix.

"Hm. Okay, then Marinette and Nathanael will be a pair!" Alix said, shooting Nathanael a quick smirk.

"W-w-what?!" Nathanael exclaimed. Alix laughed.

"I think that's a good idea." Adrien said.

"All right then, It's settled!" Alix said, "Me and Adrien and Marinette and Nathanael!"

"Wait, Alix!" Nathanael pleaded.

"Nope, we're already behind the other groups! We need to get started!"

"Okay, okay." Nathanael replied, then he turned to me, a light blush on his cheeks. "L-let's start, Marinette." Nathanael moved down the desk a little, making a little room for me. I sat beside him and we slowly started to write our small paragraph.


	30. Chapter 30

He was watching me. I knew he was. Every time I would glance over to him, he would turn his head away. We had just finished reading our two stories to the class and were now listening to Alya's group read theirs. It was something about and ladybug and cat… typical for Alya.

I was watching Nathanael draw in his sketchbook, trying my hardest to ignore Adrien's intense stare. I felt awful for doing so, but I needed sometime to straighten out my thoughts. I still wasn't sure how exactly I felt about knowing that Adrien was Chat Noir. I wasn't upset about it but I wasn't exactly thrilled about it either. I was more confused than anything.

It wasn't only that, though. My mind had wandered back to the video that Alya sent me a few days ago. He had to know I was Ladybug, there was just no possible way he didn't know. But… If that was the case… Why hadn't confronted me about it?

"What do you think, Marinette?" Nathanael asked, pushing his sketchbook closer to me. On one of the white pages was a quick sketch of me, holding a small flower in my hand.

"Wow!" I exclaimed in a whisper, "It's looks amazing!"

"Really?" Adrien slid closer to us, "Can I see?" Adrien reached for the sketchbook, but Nathanael quickly pulled it away.

"I-I'd rather you not…" Nathanael muttered.

Adrien looked surprised by this.

"Why not?" He asked. Nathanael held his sketchbook closer to his chest.

"I-it's just for Marinette…"

"Just for…" Adrien stopped, looked at me, and a small smile formed on his lips. "Oh, I see. Well, maybe you can show me something else?"

"Yeah… s-sure!" Nathanael quickly turned away from Adrien and started flipping through the pages of his sketchbook. "Here." Nathanael passed the sketchbook to Adrien. He picked it up off the table, almost as if purposely preventing me from seeing it. He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," he said. "A Ladybug fan?"

"Ah, yeah. She's pretty cool." Nathanael replied. "I-I mean, she saves Paris all the time…I have a few sketches of Chat Noir as well. But most of them are unfinished."

"Could you show me them anyway?" Adrien asked.

"Uh, yeah." Nathanael reached for his sketchbook. After Nathanael retrieved his sketchbook he started flipping through the pages again. While Nathanael was busy doing that, Adrien nudged me with his elbow.

"Hey, Marinette." He whispered, I hesitantly turned to him. "Alya's birthday is coming up soon, right?" He spoke to me just as normally as ever.

"Yeah." I replied, "In a couple weeks, actually."

"Do you know what you're going to get her?" I nodded.

"I'm going to make her a Ladybug inspired scarf." I said. Adrien looked at me questioningly.

"A… scarf?" He asked.

"Y-yeah… It's kinda my go to gift. Besides, she needs one." Adrien looked at me for a little bit then smiled.

"I see." He then pulled out his phone. "Do you have any idea what else she would like?" He then showed me the text Nino had been sending him during the entire class. "Nino's kinda freaking out." I took his phone and began scrolling through the messages.

I giggled at them. Nino really was having a breakdown trying to figure it out. Most of his messages either included seven exclamation points or were in all caps.

"Wow." I replied, "He is stressing out!"

"I know. What do you think he should do?" I handed Adrien back his phone and brought my finger to my chin as I thought.

"I think she needs a new phone case. Maybe he could get her that."

"Good thinking, Marinette!" Adrien quickly placed his phone flat on the desk and started to tap away with his right hand. I eyes slipped to his cast for a second, then turned away. "Ice." He suddenly said.

"What?" I asked.

"I slipped on some ice and ended up landing on my arm."

"I-is that so?" I muttered, feeling my heart sink a little. He was even lying to me? But, I guess he didn't have a choice, did he?

"Don't worry, it didn't hurt too much." Adrien adjusted his head in a way so that our eyes met. He smiled brightly at me.

"Marinette! Adrien!" Miss Bustier called, "If you two have something better to do than listen to your classmate's stories, then you both can join me after school."

"S-sorry." Adrien and I said simultaneously. I saw a smirk form on Alya's lips when we did.

After a while of listening to a few other groups, and looking at more of Nathanael's sketches, the bell finally rang and we dismissed from class. I stood up from the desk and went back to my own. I quickly gathered my things. I left the class room and made my way to the locker room when I felt someone grab my elbow. I turned my head to see Adrien, his eyes were glued to the floor.

"We need to talk."


	31. Chapter 31

I carefully took a sip out of the styrofoam cup as we walked along the sidewalk by the Eiffel Tower. I glanced at Adrien, who was staring intently at his cup. He hadn't said a word to me since we had left the school. There was awkward tension between us, and nothing but the sound of police sirens that were far enough away in for me to ignore them. I sighed as I realised that I was going to have to be the one to start a conversation.

"So…" I began, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Huh?" Adrien responded, obviously just breaking out some sort of daydream state.

"You didn't have us skip the rest of school just for hot chocolate, did you?" I asked.

"Oh, uh… no." Adrien quickly took a sip of his hot chocolate.

"Well…?" I waited for an answer.

"Look… This will be an uncomfortable situation for the both of us so I'm just going to say it." Adrien took another sip of his hot chocolate

"Say what?" I asked. Adrien stopped walking and turned to face me.

"Marinette." He stopped, closed his eye and took a deep breath, then looked back up to me. "Marinette, I know that-" He was cut off by the beeping of my phone.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" I exclaimed, "It's probably Alya." I pulled out my phone and saw that I did, in fact, had not one, but a swarm of messages from Alya. "That's odd…" I muttered. Adrien placed his hand over the screen of my phone.

"Marinette." He said.

"Sorry! What were you saying?" I put my phone back into the pocket of my coat.

"What I was trying to say was that I… I know that you're-"

"Marinette?" I heard a voice behind me. I turned to see Charlie. "What are you doing here?" I smiled at him.

"I could ask you the same question." I replied. He looked confused.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Shouldn't you be at the bakery? I mean I know you were there this morning…"

"I wasn't at the bakery this morning…" Charlie replied

"Yes you were!" I argued, "You asked me if I was going to come home for lunch."

"Marinette, I can assure you I wasn't at the bakery. I had classes all morning."

"Wait… What do you mean you had-" I stopped as my eyes widened in horror. I whipped out my phone and started to scroll through the messages from Alya. They started off normal with ones that asked 'Where are you?' and 'Adrien's gone too' but after a while they started to get more urgent. I scrolled through a few that made me start to worry but there was one, that made my heart drop. 'Marinette' It started, 'the police are at your house… I don't know what's going on but it looks serious. Where are you?' I dropped my cup in shock, my hot chocolate spilling all over the ground.

"Marinette?" Adrien placed his hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong?" I stared at him, then quickly pushed him away with so much force that he fell to the ground. I started to run. "Marinette!"

I couldn't run fast enough. I had to get there, I had to see for myself. I was begging, praying that my suspicions weren't true. That the bakery was fine, that my parents were busy baking cakes and frosting cupcakes. I was hoping that I was overreacting. The longer I ran, the harder it was for me to breath. I didn't care, I was running on pure adrenaline at this point.

I turned the corner by the school and stopped dead in my tracks. There were police cars surrounding my house, and all the windows of the bakery were smashed. I covered my mouth with my hands as I felt the tears well up in my eyes.

"No…" I muttered. "No." This couldn't be happening. I slowly inched my way closer to the scene. I scanned it for my parents. They were nowhere in sight. I started to panic. "Maman!" I called running closer "Papa!"

"Woah." A police officer caught me before I ran into the scene. "You can't go in there, Miss."

"Where are they?!" I exclaimed, looking up to the officer and gripping his arm. "My parents! Where are they?!"

"You're parents…?" The officer asked. "The owners of this shop?" I nodded. "Don't worry, they were already rushed to the hospital. They both should be fine."

"They're in the hospital?!" I exclaimed. The officer pushed me away from him.

"Yes." He replied. "Do you have anywhere else to stay at the moment?" I couldn't respond.

"Marinette!" Charlie's voice brought me back to reality. I glanced over to him. Adrien came racing up behind him. Charlie came closer. "W-what on earth happened here?"

"Looks to be a break in." The officer replied. "I can't give away too much detail, but it's going to take a few days to complete the investigation."

"Days?!" Charlie repeated, he then looked at me. "Marinette…" It was then we I heard a strange noise coming from the sky.

I glanced up to the roof of the school and saw a strange figure standing on top of it. I glared at it, then looked over to Adrien, who had also glanced up to the school's roof and looked to me. We held eye contact for a few seconds. I nodded slightly to him, his eyes widened, then finally understanding, he nodded back to me and slowly backed away from the scene and ran out of sight.


	32. Chapter 32

The police asked Charlie and I various questions about my parents and the shop. They asked me about my parent's marriage, their friends, how long the bakery had been open and so on. They also asked me if I had noticed anything strange earlier this morning. I would have told them about the other Charlie, but I was afraid if I did, the real Charlie might have gotten into trouble. After a while, the questioning stopped, and Charlie and I were left alone.

"I-I can't believe this…" Charlie muttered, "Who on earth would attack the bakery like this?" He turned to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I replied quietly. I glanced around, trying to find myself a place to transform.

"Are you sure? You just found out your parents are in-"

"I'm fine!" I snapped. Charlie took a step back. "S-sorry."

"It's okay. If you want, I can take you to the hospital to see them."

"No." I replied, shaking my head. It was then, in the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like Chat Noir jump up onto the roof of the school. "I-I have something I need to do." Charlie looked at me questioningly.

"What would you need to do now?"

"It's important." I began to back away from him.

"That didn't answer my question."

"I'm sorry, I just… I have to go!" I quickly turned away from him and started to run.

"Wait, Marinette!" I heard Charlie's footsteps behind me.

"Great. He's following me." I muttered, turning the corner of the school. "Now how am I supposed to-" Suddenly, a silver pole dropped down in front of me. Chat Noir poked his head out from the top of the school building.

"Need a lift, Princess?" I smiled and quickly grabbed onto it, and he pulled me up onto the roof. I saw Charlie turn the corner and look around, he then continued to run down the street.

"He looks quite worried." Chat Noir remarked.

"Yeah…" I replied. I then turned around, "Where's that Akuma?"

"It ran off in that direction." Chat Noir pointed towards the park. "I'm headed there now, before it gets too far away." I nodded to him and he quickly ran off.

"Tikki, we need to go!" I said. Tikki popped her head out of the hood of my jacket.

"Marinette, I don't think that's a good-" I cut Tikki off.

"You heard what this thing did to my parents! I'm not taking this lying down!"

"But Marinette-"

"No. Tikki, let's go!" Tikki was sucked into my earring. Soon enough, I was no longer Marinette. I quickly made my way to the park. I spotted Chat Noir who was poorly hidden behind a tree. I jumped down to him.

"Nice of you to join me, My Lady." Chat Noir said as I handed in front of him.

"Cut it out." I replied, with more attitude than I intended. "Where is he?"

"Over there." Chat Noir jerked his head to, what looked to be, Charlie.

"Good," I said, preparing my yo-yo. "Let's get him while we have the chance!" I ran out from behind the tree.

"No, wait! Ladybug!" Chat Noir ran after me. The Akuma turned to us when he heard Chat's voice.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir." The fake Charlie said. "What a treat." Odd bumps started to form on it's skin. "Too bad you didn't show up earlier." The entire body turned red, and black dots appeared. "That couple in the bakery put up quite the fight."

"Stop it!" I yelled, a pit of anger began to swirl in my stomach.

"If only you had been there, Ladybug." I glared at the Akuma, who now was imitating me. "You may have been able to protect them." I swiftly took aim at the other me.

"Ladybug! Don't!" Chat Noir quickly tackled me to the ground.

"Chat?! What are you doing?!" I pushed him off of me and stood up to discover that the other me was gone. I turned to Chat Noir. "Why did you stop me?!" I screamed.

"If I hadn't we might have ended up fighting her again." Chat said, standing up from the ground. "Neither of us are recovered enough for that-"

"I don't care! It's your fault I wasn't there to help them in the first place!" I yelled, stomping my foot as I felt tears slowly spill out of my eyes. I quickly wiped them away. Chat came over to me. "We have to find her!"

"Ladybug." He gently placed his hands on my shoulders. "This isn't like you-"

"Don't touch me!" I exclaimed, swatting his hands away. "We don't have time for this! This is all your fault! We can't let it get away again! We have to-"

"Calm down!" He yelled back at me, gripping both of my wrists. "We're never going to find her if you don't calm down!" I glared at him as I fought to free my hands.

"Let me go!" I exclaimed.

"No." Chat Noir said stubbornly, "You aren't acting like yourself! We don't need an emotional Marinette right now, we need a focused and calm Ladybug!" I immediately stopped my actions and stared at him. I didn't know why I was shocked, I knew he was right. I wasn't acting like Ladybug, I was being rash and reckless. I just wasn't expecting him to say something like that.

"B-but… my parents…" I felt my tears spill out of my eyes.

"I know." Chat Noir slowly pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me. I struggled to hold back my tears. "It's okay." He whispered, "You don't have to hide it from me." I buried my face in the crook of his neck and started to cry. Chat Noir held me tighter and began to stroke my back. "It's okay." He repeated. "Everything's going to be all right." After a while, I was able to take a deep breath and back away from him.

"I'm sorry." I looked to him. He gave me a sad smile and shook his head.

"Don't be." He replied, "So...What should we do?"

"For now…" I sighed, "I think we should keep our distance. After all, you said it yourself, neither of us are in the shape to take her on."

"So we're just going to sit back and watch?"

"For now." I repeated, "If there comes a chance we have to end up fighting her to protect others, we will. For now we just need to track her…"

"I got that covered." Chat pulled up the screen on his staff. It showed a flashing green dot.

"When did you…?"

"We may or may not have had a little sparring session back at the school." He rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, really?" I crossed my arms over my chest, "With your arm?"

"Okay… more like I charged at her and she tossed me to the side… but not before I was able to toss one of my little tracking devices on her." Chat Noir pointed at the screen on his staff, "The best part is, even if she transforms, it'll still be there, so we won't ever lose her again! Well, unless she discovers it… then we might be in trouble."

"Nice job, Kitty." I said, "But, what about when your transformation wears off?"

"I'm not sure, actually. I might have to stay as Chat Noir for a while." He said.

"And how are you going to pull that off?"

He shrugged, "No idea."


	33. Chapter 33

Dad's laugh filled the room as he wiped a tear away from his eye.

"A-and then- h-he was all like, 'Oh, I hope you two aren't ready to be toast' because we own a bakery and- and-"

"Okay, darling. I think the children have had enough." Mom said, smiling over to him.

"Aw, but Sabine! That doctor was funny!" Mom sighed and shook her head. I smiled as I watched.

"I-I'm just really glad you two are okay." I said, wiping my tears away.

"Oh, sweetie, come here." Mom extended her arms as I moved closer to her hospital bed. She wrapped them around me. "I'm sorry you had to worry about us like that. But don't worry about us anymore, we'll be out in a few days." I nodded slowly.

"Excuse me, visiting hours are over." A nurse said, peeking her head into the room.

"Ah, okay." I replied, pulling away from my mother. "I guess we're leaving now."

"Charlie, say thanks to your parents for taking her in for us." Dad said.

"It's not a problem. We have an extra room in the house anyway." Charlie replied. "Let's go, Marinette."

"All right." I quickly gave a kiss to both of my parents and left the room with Charlie. We walked along the darkening hallway in silence until we reached the sliding glass door and we left the hospital.

We walked across the pitch black parking lot and got into a small dark blue car. Charlie started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. I watched the brightly lit hospital get smaller and smaller until it was completely gone in the mirror. I sighed and settled into the seat.

"So…" Charlie began, attempting to start a conversation. "Why were you out of school earlier?" Not once did he take his eyes off the road.

"Oh, that?" I replied, he nodded. "My friend just needed to talk to me. That's all."

"Your friend?" He asked, "That blonde kid?" Charlie sounded suspicious when he said this.

"His name's Adrien." I said.

"Adrien? As in Adrien Agreste?!" I nodded "Why did you skip school with him?"

"I already told you, he had to talk to me, and he happens to be one of my closest friends so..."

"Oh, I see." Charlie seemed to relax a bit. "What did he want to talk about?" I hesitated to answer. Why was it any of his business to know what were we going to talk about? Actually, what were we going to talk about? Charlie interrupted us before we before we were able to finish our conversation.

"I'm not sure," I responded. "You interrupted us before you he could say anything to me."

"Oh," Charlie replied. "I'm sorry" Things were quiet after for about ten minutes after that. Then Charlie asked, "So what was that super important thing you had to do?"

"What?" I responded.

"Right after the police had asked us those questions."

"Oh, it does matter it was nothing."

"'It was nothing?'" Charlie repeated, glancing over to me. "But you ran off so fast! You obviously had something to do. What exactly was it?"

"It was nothing." I repeated, getting awfully annoyed with his persistence. "Just leave it be okay? I'm tired." I was being much ruder than I was intending.

"Well you got the right to be, I guess." Charlie said in response. "We'll be at my parents house soon, so just sit back and relax." Charlie turned his attention back to the road.

After a while, we stopped in front of a large white house with black framed windows and black metal fence bordered the snow covered lawn.

"Woah," I said. Charlie stepped out of the car. "It's such a big house."

"Yeah," Charlie replied, "My dad's pretty important person."

"oh... I see." I stepped out of the car, and we made our way up the stone path to the large red door. Charlie turned the silver door knob and opened the door.

"I'm home!" Charlie called. "Marinette's with me." I looked around the lobby. It was huge and looked like something out of a clichéd movie about some rich family who had everything. There was a large white staircase, a chandelier, and a circular rug on the floor.

"Welcome home." A woman with long black hair suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. The woman looked to be in her early thirties, with doll like brown eyes and pale skin. She wore a long sleeved green dress with black lacing around the waist.

"Hello, Mother." Charlie replied.

"Mother?!" I exclaimed, looking back up to the woman. She looked far too young to be his mother. The woman laughed.

"Yes," she said, with a clear American accent. "I am Charlie's mother." She began to walk down the stairs and came closer to us. "You must be Marinette." She extended her hand to me. "I'm Felicia Andre. It's nice to meet you, although, I'm sorry it's under these circumstances."

"Me too." I said, as I shook her hand.

"Where's dad?" Charlie asked. Felicia turned to him.

"Out." She replied, "He won't be back for a few days."

"Oh, I see." Charlie said. "Is dinner ready yet?" She nodded.

"Let's go eat." Felicia and Charlie quickly showed me to the dining room where we sat down at a long table with a white tablecloth over it. There were silver plates with some sort of salad were placed in three separate each took a seat and began to eat.

During the meal, Felicia continuously asked me about my life. She asked about my friends, my hobbies, and my favorite things. After a while, the questioning stopped and we had finished eating. I was asked to go into the sitting room so they could prepare my room. I did as they asked.

As I walked around the sitting room until I noticed a large picture that hung above the fireplace. It showed a happy family of four, a mother, father, a son and a daughter. The mother looked like Felicia, and she rested her arm on the shoulder, what looked to be a younger version of Charlie, next to Felicia stood a calm looking man with brown hair and blue eyes, he had his hands resting on the shoulders of a girl about my age. The girl kind of looked like me as well, she had similar eye colors and we wore our hair in similar styles.

"Who's this?" I wondered out loud.

"My sister." I heard Charlie say. I turned to face him. "Her name's Rosette."

"That's very pretty!" I exclaimed. "Where is she? Can I meet her?"

"No." Charlie said abruptly.

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's not possible." He chuckled to himself. "Unless, of course, you're able to raise the dead." I gasped at his sudden statement.

"I-I'm so sorry I d-didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, Marinette." Charlie gave me a small smile. "She's been gone for quite some time now. But, y'know, you two are a lot alike."

"R-really?" I asked, suddenly feeling very awkward. "How so?"

"She wanted to be a fashion designer as well. And she wanted to work under Gabriel Agreste."

"I-is that so?" Not only did we look alike, we practically had the same dream. I stared at the large photo of the family.

"Come on. I'll take you to your room." Charlie said, leading me out of the sitting room and towards the upstairs area. We came to a room with a small purple door. "We would give you a guest room, but they're all being renovated at the moment, so you'll have to sleep in this one." Charlie opened the door to reveal a room that seemed to belong to a girl. I looked around and saw a bed, a desk with a sewing machine on top of it, a few mannequins, and many pictures of what looked to be Rosette on the wall.

"They could have fixed up the bed a little bit." Charlie moved over to the bed. He then glanced up to some of the pictures, a small frown on his lips.

"Do you miss her?" I asked. "Rosette?"

"Of course I do. She was my baby sister." Charlie replied, fixing the purple sheets on the small twin sized bed.

"Do you… Do you see her in me?" I asked, Charlie looked at me, shocked at my question. He looked down to the floor.

"Yes." He said, "A little. It's hard not to. I mean, you had similar dreams, personalities, even tastes in food. But I know that you're Marinette, and she's Rosette." Charlie finished fixing the sheets. "There, all set now." Charlie moved to the door. "Sleep well, Marinette. I'll see you in the morning." He left, closing the door behind him.

"Geez, I didn't know Charlie had to go through something like this." I said, looking at one of Rosette's photos that were hung up on the wall.

"It's sad." Tikki replied.

"Tikki, have you ever had to go through this?" I asked, as she flew out of my purse.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Have any of the Ladybugs… you know…"

"Died?" Tikki said, "Marinette, I've been around for thousands of years."

"I know." I replied, "I just… I don't know…"

"Marinette, you really should get some sleep."

"Yeah." I said. I opened the small duffle bag I had brought with me and pulled out my white night gown that I had packed. I quickly put it on and turned off the light and slid into the bed, wrapping myself with the blanket. It wasn't long before I had fallen asleep.

It was a few hours later that I awoke to a strange tapping sound coming from the window on the other side of the room. I dragged myself out of bed to investigate.


	34. Chapter 34

"Come on, Marinette." I muttered, hugging myself tightly as I sat on the branch of a tree outside of an unfamiliar window. I taped on the window again. "Open up." I was absolutely freezing. The cold wind felt like knives against my face and back. If I had known my suit wouldn't have kept me warm. I saw the dark room suddenly fill with light as Marinette made her way over to the window. She opened it.

"Chat…?" She asked softly, as she gently rubbed her eye. "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry to wake you Princess," I began, "But you really couldn't have expected me to go home like this." She moved away from the window and I stepped into the room, brushed off the small amount of snow that covered me and closed the window.

"Hm." She replied, moving back over to the purple covered bed. She quickly collapsed on it and covered herself.

"Hey," I called, moving closer to her.

"Hm?" Was the only response I got. I sighed, she was far too tired to talk to me, but I couldn't really blame her after the day she had.

I decided to let her sleep, so turned off the light, curled up into a ball and laid down on the floor beside the bed as I tried to fall asleep. There was, however, a problem. I could do many incredible things as Chat Noir, but sleeping, unfortunately, was not one of them.

I rolled onto my back and stared up to the ceiling. Some time had passed and I had let my thoughts wander into the deepest areas of my mind when I heard a crying whimper coming from Marinette that had interrupted her peaceful breathing. I listened closer to her breathing, Seeing if it would happen again. It did.

I stood up and looked over to her. She had a look of displeasure displayed on her sleeping face. Another whimper slipped from her lips.

"Is she having a nightmare?" I asked myself. "Princess." I whispered, shaking her lightly. She groaned and turned her back to me.

"Don't wake her." I heard a small voice say. I glanced around to find Tikki, hiding under the bed in a small wooden like house. I crawled down to her. "Please…"

"Why not?" I asked, "It's obvious she's having a nightmare."

"She needs her sleep." Tikki replied simply, giving me a smile. As someone who uses fake smiles on a daily basis, I could spot them a mile away, and Tikki had one displayed on her face.

"Okay." I began, "What's the real reason?" Tikki looked at me, obviously shocked. "Your smile gave it away." She sighed.

"I figured it would." Tikki turned away.

"What's wrong?"

"I-I can't face Marinette right now." Tikki said, "She'd be upset with me."

"What would she be upset about?"

"Rosette…" Tikki's eyes over flowed with tears.

"Rosette…?" I questioned. Tikki flew up toward one of the walls that was covered in photos. Each photo was different, but had one thing in common, a girl with dark hair and blue eyes.

"That's Rosette."

"Huh, she kinda looks like Marinette." I said.

"No…" Tikki replied, "Marinette looks like her." I glanced at Marinette.

"Yeah… I guess you could look at it that way. But I don't understand why Marinette would be upset."

"Rosette…" Tikki's eyes overflowed at this point, "Rosette was the Ladybug right before Marinette!" Tikki turned away from me as she said this. I heard her quietly sobbing.

"W-what do you mean 'the Ladybug before Marinette'?"

"I mean exactly that!" Tikki quickly lowered her voice as she spoke to me. "Rosette was an amazing Ladybug, taking care of the Akuma at night so she didn't draw too much attention to herself. But one night… something went wrong with an Akuma… she was hit and… she- she didn't wake up after that."

"D-did I ever work with Rosette?" I asked.

"No, Marinette got her Miraculous before you did." I let out a sigh of relief, the thought of possibly working with a different Ladybug was almost too much to bare.

"Good… But I'm sorry to hear about Rosette, but I don't understand why Marinette would be upset with you about this."

"Papillon was not stopping, I had to find another Ladybug before too many Akuma arose. I was in shock… I had never lost a Ladybug so suddenly before, so I-I…" Tikki stopped as tears continued to flow from her big round eyes.

"So, you tried to find someone exactly like Rosette?" Tikki nodded. "Does that mean that if Rosette didn't… Marinette would have never been Ladybug?"

"She would have had just as much of a chance as anyone else. Chat Noir, you have to promise not to say anything to Marinette, okay? Please… Marinette is one of the best Ladybugs I have ever seen. But if she were to find out that I was just looking for someone who resembled Rosette, it might discourage her."

"I understand why you don't want her to know, but I'm not going to lie to her." I replied. Tikki rapidly shook her head. "However… that doesn't mean I have to tell her."

Tikki's eyes widened and she smiled genuinely,

"Thank you, Adrien!" She exclaimed, quickly hugging my neck, "Thank you so much!" Tikki pulled away and returned to her small house under the bed, still muttering small thank yous here and there.

I looked over to Marinette, and walked toward her. I pulled the thick purple blanket over her shoulders and leaned over her.

"Good night, Marinette." I whispered gently into her ear.

"Good night." Marinette turned to face me, her eyes watered over.

She had heard everything.


	35. Chapter 35

My eyes hesitantly opened, my eyelids felt heavy and my eyes were burning slightly, probably because I had cried myself to sleep the night before. I stared at the wall in front of me for a few seconds when I suddenly saw that there was an arm snaked around my stomach. After a few moments of confusion, I realized it wasn't mine. I turned my head to see Adrien, his face just mere inches away from my own. He was sleeping peacefully. I let out a shriek and accidently pushed Adrien onto the floor. He landed with a loud thud.

Adrien peaked his head up from the floor, looking a little dazed.

"A-Adrien! I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-" I frantically fumbled

with my apology. Adrien just sat there, squinting his eyes at me. He then glanced around the room, then back to me.

"Oh, right." Adrien muttered, more to himself than to me. He started to brush his hair out of his face and into his usual side bang. His eyes suddenly widened as he stared at his hand, then looked at his other one.

"Plagg!" He yelled. Plagg suddenly appeared from under the bed, followed by Tikki.

"What?" Plagg replied.

"I thought I said to keep the transformation going." Adrien said, "What happened?"

"I got bored." Plagg responded, shrugging his shoulders. Adrien let out a frustrated sigh.

"You got bored." Adrien said, "That's your reasoning?"

"Relax," Plagg said, "I memorized the location of the Akuma. I know exactly where it was before you climbed into bed with Marinette."

"Don't say it like that!" Adrien responded, his cheeks were tinted pink, "You make me sound like some creep."

"You are." Plagg smirked

"I'm not! I only did it because it got cold down here on the floor."

"Sure." Plagg said, tauntingly. "And I'm _sure_ the only reason you had your arms wrapped around her was because of that too."

"I-it was! She's warm!" Adrien stood up and glared at Plagg, who just laughed at him.

"A-Adrien?" I asked, he turned to me, then sighed.

"So, I guess the cat's out of the bag." He chuckled awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. He then cleared his throat.

"W-what do you mean?" He sighed.

"We never got the chance to talk properly yesterday, did we?" I shook my head. "Well… you see the reason I wanted to talk to you was… Well, I wanted to tell you that-" Adrien stopped, his eyes slipped down to the floor for a few seconds then back up to me. "I'm Chat Noir… but I guess you were already able to see that."

"Yes," I replied. "Why are you telling me this?" I knew very well why he was telling me this. Even so, I wanted to hold on to the small shard of hope that he didn't know.

"I know that you're Ladybug."

The shard shattered.

A long, awkward silence fell between us, neither of us looking at the other. Adrien fidgeted, shifting his weight from one leg to the other and I rubbed my thumbs across the seams of the blanket. Eventually, Adrien spoke.

"Marinette-"

"Look, just because we know, doesn't mean things have to change." I said, pulling the blanket over me. "Chat Noir and Ladybug can still be partners, and Marinette and Adrien can still be friends. Nothing has to change. Nothing."

"Marinette…" Adrien muttered, his eyes glued to the floor. "Are you...disappointed?"

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"You're avoiding eye contact." I sighed.

"So are you." I replied. "But, I'm not disappointed, Adrien. I just… I need time to think is all. A lot of things have happened in the last few days, I need to straighten out my thoughts."

"I understand." Adrien replied with a slight smile. "Will I see you at school today?" I shook my head.

"I'm going to go and see my parents." I replied, uncovering myself and getting out of the bed. I stood on the cool wooden floor, facing Adrien. His eyes widened at something as he stared at me.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Your neck…" Adrien muttered, moving closer to me.

"Oh, it's fine." I said, taking a step back from him. Adrien placed his right hand against the side of my neck and stroked it with his thumb.

"It looks bad." He said. "Does it hurt?"

"No, not much." He applied a small amount of pressure onto the red mark around my neck. I whinned.

"Liar." He said. I glanced down to his cast.

"Yours must have hurt more." I replied.

"Don't wor-"

"Don't tell me not to worry!" I said, "You're my friend-"

"Then let me worry about you too!" Adrien placed both his hands onto my shoulders, "You always play off how hurt you are, no matter if you're Ladybug or Marinette, you always try to . It hurts those around you, Marinette. Those who care about you… Those who love you. The more you try to hide your pain, the more you cause pain to those you care about." I gently pried his hands away.

"Take your own advice." I said. He looked at me, a little shocked.

"Marinette-" I suddenly heard footsteps coming from the hallway."

"You should go." I said, "You'll get in trouble if you're found here."

"Y-yeah," Adrien took a few steps toward the window. "I guess I'll see you later. Plagg, come on!" Suddenly, a bright green light flashed. I covered my eyes, then opened them when I heard the window open. Chat Noir was about to jump onto the branch of the tree when he turned to me. "I'll let you know if I find that Akuma again." I nodded. And with that, he left.

I let out a sigh of relief as I closed the window and locked it.

"Well." Tikki whispered. "That was interesting."

"You could say that." I replied, pulling up my duffle bag. I grabbed a pink turtleneck sweater and a pair of blue jeans and quickly changed into them. I noticed Tikki looking at some of the pictures of Rosette that hung on the wall. I sighed again.

I was definitely no replacement for her. I knew I wasn't. It was obvious that Tikki had some deep connection with Rosette. She was not like that with me.

I looked over to the other side of the room, trying to ignore Tikki when I saw the sewing machine. Curiously, I walked over to it. It was in near perfect condition. Then, I got an idea.I quickly started to look for materials. I found some unused fabric in a drawer of the desk the sewing machine sat on, and some thread underneath it. I set up the sewing machine and plugged it into the wall.

"Hey, Tikki, how about I make you that dress I promised?" Tikki smiled and flew over to me.

"I would love that!" Tikki exclaimed. I nodded to her and started to make the dress I had originally planned for my design class from memory, just at a smaller scale. After about an hour or so, it was done.

"Here, Tikki!" I said, holding out the small dress. She flew into it, and spun around.

"I love it!" She exclaimed, "I love it so much! Thank you, Marinette!" She continued to spin in it and laugh happily.

"Tikki…" I muttered. She looked at me. I took a deep breath and focused on one spot on the desk, preparing my mind, and my heart, for the next words that were going to flow from my mouth. "I… I don't want to be Ladybug anymore."


	36. Chapter 36

"Marinette, you really should try and go to school." Mom said, as she packed her clothes into a small bag. "We're being released later today, we'll be fine until then."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I can stay longer."

"No, you should go to school. You should go see your friends." Mom gave me a quick hug, "And stop worrying about us, neither if us were hurt that bad."

"But you both were hurt bad enough to have to stay overnight in a hospital…" I muttered. It was then Dad came storming back into the room, his arms full of small trinkets from the gift shop.

"Look at all of these!" He exclaimed, dropping them onto one of the hospital beds. "They're all so cute! I couldn't help myself." He started to dig through the pile of differents stuffed animals. "Here, Marinette! I got this one for you!" Dad handed me a small pink teddy bear that held a fake red balloon with some sort of inspirational writing on it.

"Thanks, Papa!" I said holding the bear close to my chest.

 _Tikki would love-_ I stopped mid thought and looked down to the floor, doing my best to hold back tears.

"And look at this!" Dad held up red doll that happened to look like a certain superheroine.

I turned away, muttering a quick "Cool."

"Marinette, is something wrong?" Mom asked.

"N-no!" I exclaimed, forcing a smile. "I was just remembering that I haven't responded to any of Alya's texts, she must be worried."

"In that case, you probably really should head to school!" Mom replied.

"Yeah." I responded, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. Mom noticed something when I did this.

"Marinette, Where are your earrings?" Mom asked.

"O-oh, um..." I tightened my grip on the small bear. "T-they must have fallen out at some point."

"That's too bad. I know how much you loved those ones. Maybe we can go out and find you another pair like them."

"Maybe." I shrugged. It was then Charlie came in from the hallway.

"My class starts soon. We should get going." He said.

"Okay." I responded. "Can you drop me off at my school, too?" Charlie stared at me for a second.

"Yeah, I can do that." He then glanced down to his watch. "If we leave now, anyway." I nodded. I waved goodbye to my parents and quickly made my way out of the hospital.

"Good thing your parents are getting released today, huh?" Charlie said, unlocking the door to the car. We both got in.

"Yeah." I replied, "But our house is still being investigated by the police…"

"Don't worry, I'm sure there's enough room at my house for the three of you! Even when our guest bedrooms are being spruced up." He said, "I'm sure my mother wouldn't mind having some company, especially since my father's out of town."

"What does your father do anyway?" I asked.

"Oh, he's an ambassador,"

"For what?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine. He doesn't like to talk about work when he's home."

"I see. Are you two close?"

"Very." Charlie replied with a smile. "Although, I'm not near as close to my parents as you seem to be with yours." Charlie chuckled. "I envy your relationship with them. I bet you can tell them everything."

"Almost everything…" I muttered.

The car suddenly jerked to a stop. We were outside of my school. Charlie reached behind his seat and pulled out my backpack.

"Here." He said, handing it to me. "You left it in here last night."

"Oh, Thanks." I replied. I opened the door and stepped onto the sidewalk.

"I'll see you later, Marinette."

"Bye, Charlie." I replied, turning to the school. I made my way into the school and up to the classroom. I slowly opened the door to the classroom and stepped inside. Everyone in the class immediately turned their attention to me.

"Marinette!" Alya quickly jumped up from her seat and wrapped her arms around me. "Are your parents okay?! What exactly happened?! Why did you never text me back?! I was so worried!"

"I know, I'm sorry, Alya. I forgot to text you back." I said as she pulled away.

"Well, don't let it happen again!" Alya said, placing her hands on her hips. I nodded to her and we quickly took our seats.

I slowly walked passed Adrien, he glared at me through the corner of his eye. I sat at my desk, Adrien continued to stare at me for some time before turning back around.

I suddenly felt my phone vibrate from my pocket. I peeked at myit. On the screen was a text from Adrien.

"We need to talk after class." It read. "It's important." I sighed.

"What's wrong?" Alya whispered. I hid my phone from her.

"My parents." I lied, "They're freaking out about the party next weekend."

"Oh, because of the bakery?" I nodded. "Well, I could probably get my mom to allow them to work in the kitchen over at the Bourgeois hotel."

"No, I'm sure we can figure it out."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." I smiled at her.

"Okay, but if you need help-"

"We can take care of it. Thanks anyway, Alya." I turned away from her. She muttered something under her breath, but I couldn't make out what it was.

Class continued as usual, and eventually, it ended. I quickly gathered my notebook in my arms, not wasting time trying to put it into my backpack. I began to leave the classroom

"Wait, Marinette!" Adrien's voice called. I ignored him and continued to walk to the locker room, and to my locker.

"What in the world was that?!" Alya exclaimed, leaning up against my locker, preventing me from opening it.

"What?" I asked, I moved her away and opened my locker.

"You totally just blew off Adrien!" She replied, slamming my locker shut. "What's going on with you two?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. Alya rolled her eyes.

"First, you skip school with him, then you completely ignore him! Why is that?"

"It doesn't matter, okay?" I replied. Alya crossed her arms.

"Marinette…" Alya turned away from me, "You know I will support you no matter what… but I don't like all these secrets. I've noticed a change in you lately. I get that what happened with your parents is devastating, but even before that! You haven't been yourself, and I'm not the only one who's noticed. Nino has been asking what has been up with you too. Do you know how painful it is for me to tell him that I have no idea? Do you know what it feels like to see my best friend go through so much and not tell me anything?" I saw Alya's eyes water over. "Do you know how much it hurts to know that Adrien tells Nino everything and you tell me nothing?!"

"A-Alya." I placed my hand on her shoulder. She removed her glasses, clipped them onto her shirt, and wiped her eyes.

"I-I just feel like I don't matter to you anymore!" She started to sob into her hands.

"Alya, it- it's not like that! You're my best friend! Of course you matter to me, you're one of the most important people in my life!" I quickly wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug.

"Th-then how come you've been so distant lately? How come you never tell me anything?!"

"It's not like I don't want to tell you! I-it's just that… I can't." She looked up to me.

"Why not?!"

"I-I… It's just too hard to explain, but I just can't." I said.

"Oh, so it's another secret?!" Alya pushed me away. "I'm getting sick of this! I can't handle all of these secrets anymore! I'm done!"

"A-Alya-"

"No!" Alya glared at me, tears still in her eyes. "I'm done, Marinette! If you can't trust me, why should I trust you?! How can we even be friends?!"

"Wh-what are you saying?" I asked, noticing that the other people in the room had their attention turned to us.

"I can't be friends with someone who I can't trust." Alya turned away from me and I watched her storm off, completely speechless. It was then I noticed Adrien standing at the door of the locker room, he watched Alya walk passed him then looked in my direction. I shook my head at him, as I felt my heart shatter. Tears started to spill out of my eyes.

Everything was crashing down around me, and it was all because of Ladybug. All of it.


	37. Chapter 37

I sat on the stairs of the school, hugging myself as I held my phone against my ear. School had ended about an hour ago and I was waiting for Charlie to come and pick me up so we could go get my parents. An all too familiar message filled my ears, immediately followed by a loud high pitched beep.

"Voice mail again?" I sighed, lowering my phone. I stared at the brightly lit screen that displayed a picture of Alya. I wanted to cry again, but my eyes were far too tired for that. I shoved my phone back into the pocket of my coat and hugged my knees. I rested my head on top of them and closed my eyes. I heard someone's footsteps come up behind me

"Marinette?" A voice said. I turned around to see Nathanael, dressed in a thin coat and a long red scarf.

"Oh, Nathanael. Hi." I replied. "What are you still doing here?" Nathanael fidgeted a bit, then brushed his bang out of his face.

"A-Art club." He replied, revealing a sketchpad he had against his chest. "Why are you still here?"

"I'm waiting for my ride." I said.

"M-mind if I join you?" Nathanael asked. I stared at him for a minute, then nodded my head. Nathanael awkwardly walked towards me and sat beside me. He started to flip through the pages of his sketchbook. He then started to tear a page out.

"Here." He said, handing me the picture he had drawn in class the other day. "I figured since you were having a rough day, you may have wanted something to cheer you up."

"'Having a rough day?'" I asked.

"We-well… yeah. With your parents… and with Alya."

"You know about that?" I asked. Nathanael turned his head away.

"Yeah… I'm pretty sure our whole class does too." I sighed.

"Gossip travels fast, huh?" I took the drawing from Nathanael. "Thank you." I gave him the best smile I could muster.

A red car suddenly pulled up to the school.

"Well, that's my ride." Nathanael said, standing up. "Don't worry, Marinette. I'm sure things will work out. They always seem to for you."

"Yeah…" _When I had luck on my side_. I thought. I waved Nathanael off as he got into the passenger side of the car and left. I folded up the drawing and placed it into my backpack. I returned to my awkward ball like position.

It wasn't long after that, I started to hear foot steps coming fast from around the school. I was about to get up to see what was going on, when Chat Noir appeared, sliding out in front of me. I stared at him for a second as he glanced back at me.

"A-Alya?!" I exclaimed.

"No!" Chat Noir replied, "It's not her!"

"Not her…?" I muttered, then I realized what he meant. "I-is it that Akuma?!" He nodded.

"Marinette, you were right. This isn't a normal Akuma."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean that there is no victim! That thing is able to absorb other Akuma and take it's power!"

"How do you know?"

"I saw it." Chat Noir replied, turning over to me. "Nino and I were walking over to his house when we bumped into Alya. I saw the Akuma following her, and was about to transform, but someone- something, sucked the Akuma into their body. Then, well, became Lady WiFi!"

I stared at Lady WiFi in disbelief. My best friend was almost taken over by an Akuma again… and it was my fault. I felt a wave a dread wash over me when suddenly, Chat Noir threw his staff at me. It stuck into something beside me. I glanced down and my eyes widened in horror as I saw a black butterfly, struggling against his staff.

"Find a different target!" Chat Noir yelled at the small insect.

Lady WiFi pointed at the butterfly and is suddenly phased through Chat Noir's staff. It then flew into Lady WiFi's hand. Some sort of black fog started to travel up her arms and she started to change. After the fog engulfed her body, it started to disappear, revealing a different girl.

This girl had white hair that was put up into two curly pigtails, she had a white mask shaped like a butterfly across her eyes. She wore a black dress with white trimmings. The dress had a short, princess like skirt that ended just above her knees. On the hem of the skirt was a line of white butterflies. She also wore a pair of black gloves that covered her wrists.

"Wh-what is that?" I asked.

"You." Chat Noir replied. "As an Akuma."

"H-how can that be?! I've never been taken over by an Akuma!"

"You almost were." I stared at him. He was right.

The girl raised her right hand, while her left arm was limp at her side. She looked over to me with a chilling stare and pointed at me. A sudden stream of white butterflies came rushing at me. Chat Noir quickly jumped in front of me, grabbing his staff in one swift movement, and started to knock the butterflies away. The girl glared at him.

"You should get out of here." Chat Noir muttered to me. "You're not going to be much help."

"Chat-"

"Go!" I nodded, and started to stand up when I suddenly felt a stinging pain spread from the middle of my back and spread to my heart. I couldn't breath and lost my balance, causing me to fall down the steps of the school.

"Marinette?!" Chat Noir glanced down to me, obviously startled. Soon after large butterfly phased through my chest, and I was able to breath again. "Are you okay?!"

I shook my head. The only way I could describe the feeling I just had was that it felt like death. The pain, and the feeling of dread, it was too much to bare. Was that what it felt like? To be taken over by an Akuma? Had all those people we saved felt that? Had my friends felt that?

The abnormally large white butterfly flew to the girl's side and another flood of white butterflies began circling it. One by one, the butterflies started to turn from white to black. Once they all were completely black, the larger butterfly started to change as well. However, instead of turning black, the butterfly slowly started to take on a different shape. It started to form arms, legs, and other human features until another girl stood in its place.

This girl looked exactly like the other one, except with opposite colors. Instead of white hair, a white mask and a black dress with white gloves, this one had black hair, a black mask and a white dress with black gloves. The trim of the newer girl's dress was This girl raised her left hand while her right arm was limp at her side.

The two girls looked at each other and giggled to themselves. They joined their limp hands together and each of them suddenly sprouted a single butterfly wing. The black one sprouted a black wing with a single white dot towards the top of it, while the white one had a white wing and a black dot toward the bottom of it.

Chat and I stared at them in disbelief.

"Geez, now I'm really glad that I stopped that Akuma from getting to you." Chat muttered. "Then I would have been in some real trouble." He extended his staff a bit more.

"Chat Noir!" I exclaimed, watching him struggle against the butterflies. He looked over to me and threw something over in my direction. Two small, round objects landed at my feet.

"Just one last time, Marinette!" He called. "Please!" His voice was soon drowned out by the butterflies.

"'One last time…?'" I repeated, unsure of what he meant. I quickly scooped up the small objects, and immediately knew what they were. My earrings.

I looked back up to Chat Noir and suddenly noticed that there was no longer a flock of butterflies surrounding him, and that there now stood two of them. One black with a large white dot on his chest, the other white with a black dot. They both glared at me with the same chilling stare as the girls.

The girls started to laugh again, and it was getting on my nerves. I glanced down to the earrings and made my decision.

"Tikki," I whispered, the earrings flashed red once. "One last time."


	38. Chapter 38

I skillfully dodged the attacks that both the girls and the double Chat Noirs' attacks, throwing my yo-yo at either of them at any chance I got. At one point, I was able to grab the staff of the white one and tossed it away. He chased after it. I quickly turned my attention to the other one, who charged at me. I quickly moved over to the side as he raised his staff. It was then four of them surrounded me. I gripped my yo-yo, then tossed it into the air.

"Lucky Charm!" I exclaimed, expecting something to fall down from the sky and into my hands. There was one problem. Nothing appeared. "What?!" I exclaimed, as my yo-yo returned to my hands. It was then, the black Chat Noir tackled me to the ground, I struggled against him.

"I-I don't understand!" I exclaimed, "Why didn't it work?!"

"You are the Lucky Charm, Marinette!" Tikki said, her voice echoing in my mind.

"What do you mean I'm the Lucky Charm?!"

"Exactly that. The only thing you need to defeat these Akuma is you!"

"Me?" I questioned, "But Tikki, can't-"

"Stop doubting yourself!" I looked up, Chat was fighting his hardest against the control of the Akuma, the large white dot on his chest fading a bit. The grip he had on my wrist loosened."You're amazing, Marinette! You always have been! I thought so even before I knew you were Ladybug!" Chat Noir released one of my wrists and placed his right hand over the hand that held my yo-yo. "Nobody can replace you! I know you can do this." A noticed a small green spark slip from his ring into my yo-yo.

The white circle on his chest started to grow darker, and the grip on my wrist got tighter. I quickly kicked him off of me. He landed across the sidewalk, directly in front of the two girls.

I spared a second to study the two girls. They stood still, the black one glaring at me, and the white one smiling slightly. I glanced at the wings of the girls, then slowly started to noticed an all too familiar symbol within the wings.

"Yin and Yang…" I muttered, "There can't be Yin without Yang. And there can't be Yang without Yin!" I glanced down to my own hands. "One can't survive without the other." I looked back up to the girls as my eyes suddenly highlighted the girls' joined hands. "That's it!" I quickly threw my yo-yo up to the girls and it wrapped around their hands. I pulled them down toward me. The second they got close enough, I kicked the white girl in the chest, causing her to fall backward, and releasing the hand of the black girl.

The second their hands released, their wings disappeared, and the white girl suddenly became a large flood of white butterflies, along with the fake Chat Noir. The other girl fell to her knees, releasing Chat Noir from her spell as she did. I stood over her.

"You've done enough harm, you nasty bug!" I said, tracing a line upwards on my yo-yo. "Although, I suppose that it's my fault anyway." I started to swing my yo-yo around and as I slid it towards the girl, I noticed two odd beams came out of it. One red, the other green. They wrapped around the Akuma like rope. Suddenly, the Akuma started to transform, I started to take another battle stance, expecting it to break free from my grasp. It didn't. Instead, the girl became a large black butterfly, still tangled in the beam like ropes. Slowly, the beams started to retreat back into my yo-yo. A bright white light engulfed the butterfly and the yo-yo returned to my hand.

I stared at it, unsure of what had happened. I hesitated, then gently pressed the top of the yo-yo. Near a hundred butterflies came rushing out of my yo-yo. I quickly blocked my face with my arm, but lowered it as I noticed the butterflies were circling me. They circled all they way up my body, then as they got to the top of my head, they flew over to Chat Noir and did the same. The stream of butterflies then flew into the sky and split into two different groups and raced around the school. I quickly turned the corner to see the butterflies circling the bakery, the shattered window was repaired, and the police tape disappeared. My parents were suddenly standing in front of the bakery,looking confused.

Chat Noir came closer to me, a soft look in his eye.

"Woah, that was interesting." He said.

"Yeah." I replied. Silence fell between us.

"So…" Chat Noir fidgeted where he stood, "I-is this the last time that I'm going to see you… y'know… like this?"

"Not exactly." His head shot up.

"What do you mean?" He asked, eagerly.

"I can't be Ladybug without being Marinette, right?" I replied. He looked at me, confused.

"I guess not…"

"If that's the case, then…" I turned to him. "I can't be Marinette… without being Ladybug." An adorable, and childish smile formed on his lips.

"Well then..." He said. "Was I right or was I right?" He offered his fist to me. I stared at him for a minute. Then laughed.

"You were right." I said, bumping his fist. "I can't be replaced." It was then he gripped my wrist and pulled me into his chest as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Ch-chat?!" I asked. Chat Noir was silent for a minute.

"It's good to have you back." He finally whispered, holding me tighter. I stood there for a second, then, with an all too familiar pain in my heart, I hugged him back.

"It's good to be back." I replied.


	39. Chapter 39

"No way!" Alya crossed her arms and shoved her nose up into the air. "There's no way! I won't do it!"

"Oh, come on Alya!" I replied, getting quite annoyed. "It's been nearly a week, you can't possibly still be mad at her."

"I am! If she wants to talk to me, then she can come over here and apologize!" Alya stepped back into her house, "Good bye, Adrien!" She slammed the door in my face.

"I tried." I sighed, turning to Nino, who was hiding in a bush.

"All right." Nino pulled himself out of the bush. "Let me have a go."

"Are you sure she wants to make up with Marinette? She seems to be dead set on not talking to her." I said, as he climbed the stairs.

"She does. Trust me, she's lonely." He patted me on the shoulder, then knocked on the door. The door opened again, Alya appeared, glaring at us.

"Great," She said, "Marinette got you to go along with this too, Nino?"

"What? No! Look, Marinette didn't ask us to do anything, Adrien and I are doing this out of the kindness of our hearts!" Nino placed his arm around my neck and pulled me closer to him. "And we think you and Marinette really miss each other! Why don't we head over to the bakery and go see her?"

"No!" Alya crossed her arms again. "Not unless she wants to apologize!"

"But Marinette-"

"But Marinette nothing!"

"Alya…" I began, "You're the one who needs to apologize!"

"What?!" Alya exclaimed. Nino was shaking his head rapidly at me. I ignored him.

" Marinette hasn't really done anything wrong. All she did was say that she couldn't tell you something. I get that you think you can't trust her, but did you ever think that maybe she wasn't ready to tell you? That maybe it's something she COULDN'T tell you?" I noticed my voice rising a bit. "You could have just said 'Hey, that's okay, tell me when you're ready,' but no, you had to act childish and rash and get upset with her!"

"Adrien calm down." Nino said

"No, I'm not going to, not until she realizes that she's wrong!"

"I'm not wrong! It's her fault! If Marinette had just told me-" I cut Alya off.

"Trust me, there's a reason she couldn't tell you about it!" Alya stared at me for a minute, rage filling her honey brown eyes.

"You know?!" She exclaimed.

"Ah… well- I-I, uh." I backed away slowly.

"I can't believe this! She told you, the guy who she has such a major crush on that she can't even think straight around?! " Alya shook her head.

"Sh-she didn't exactly tell me…" Alya looked back at me as I rubbed the back of my neck. "I kinda found out by myself… accidently, of course."

"Oh, yeah? What is it?" I stared at Alya for a minute. Surely she knew I was not going to tell her.

"If I told you, Marinette would never forgive me. But trust me, it's really something she has to keep hidden for the time being." I replied. "When she's ready to tell you, I'm sure she will." There was no response from Alya for a while, when suddenly she started to laugh.

"You make it sound like she's some sort of underground villain or something!" Alya exclaimed.

"Quite the opposite, actually." I whispered to myself.

"Well, if Mari's not going to tell me, and you're not going to tell me, I guess I have no choice but to figure it out myself!" Alya pulled the door shut, "Time for some investigating! To the bakery!" She pushed passed me and ran down the stairs.

"That was far too sudden of a change." I said, looking at Alya suspiciously. Nino shrugged.

"I told you! She's lonely without Marinette! She's probably been waiting for an excuse to talk her all week, but has been too stubborn to do so." Nino replied, "Come on. We should catch up with her." Nino and I quickly chased after Alya, only to arrive at the bakery soon after. We barged through the door.

"Welcome to-" Marinette began, looking up from a large circular cake. She had a bit of pink frosting on her face. "Oh, Adrien! Nino! And… Alya?!" Marinette placed the small bag of frosting onto the table beside the cake. "W-what are you doing here?" Alya crossed her arms.

"I'm here to investigate." Alya said.

"Investigate?" She asked. "Investigate what?"

"A certain little secret you have!" Marinette sighed as she looked to the floor.

"Look, about that-"

"Sh!" Alya cut her off, as she moved closer to her. "Let me speak." Marinette nodded. "I still don't understand why you can't tell me whatever this secret is, but I figured that if I were to figure it out myself, like Adrien did, you'll have no choice but to accept it!" Marinette stared at Alya for a minute, unsure of how to respond. "And, in order to figure it out, I will have to spend more time with you!" Shock spreaded onto Marinette's face, then it soon was replaced by a large and bright smile. Alya then sighed to herself. "Listen to me! I sound so stupid! What I'm trying to say is… well… I'm sorry, Marinette!" Alya quickly wrapped her arms around Marinette and Marinette accepted the hug and they began whispering apologies to each other.

After awhile they started to talk normally to each other and began giggling. Nino and I watched them quietly, each of our eyes adoring the two girls that stood in front of us. Nino nudged me with his elbow and jerked his head at Marinette. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I suddenly remembered a book I had lent to Marinette for school earlier in the week. I quickly made my way over to the two girls.

"Marinette, do you happen to have that book I lent you the other day?" I asked, Marinette turned to me.

"Book?" She questioned, bringing her finger to her chin."Oh, yeah! That one! It should be upstairs in my 're free to go and get it!" She then quickly made my way over to me, grabbed my arm and pulled me down gently so she could reach my ear. The used her other hand to hide the movements of her mouth.

"Ask Tikki," She whispered, her hot breath tickling my ear, "She should know where it is." Marinette pulled away as I nodded my head.

I made my way to the stairs behind the bakery. I quickly climbed them and entered the living area, bumping into her mother.

"Oh, hello, Adrien!" Her mother greeted me.

"Hello." I replied.

"Can I help you with something?" She asked, as she finished setting the small table.

"No, I lent Marinette a book and she said I could go get it." I replied, taking a step onto the stairs that lead up to Marinette's room. Her mother simply smiled and nodded and I made my way up into Marinette's room. As I entered the room, I noticed a small ball of red move from a plate of chocolate chip cookies that sat on the desk to the back of the computer monitor.

"It's okay, Tikki, It's just me." I said, moving over to the desk and the plate of cookies. Tikki reappeared from behind the computer and flew over to the plate. "Can I have one?" She nodded and I picked up one of the cookies and began to eat it. "Do you know where Marinette put that book I lent her?"

"What does it look like?" Tikki asked.

"It's pretty thick, and had a white cover." Tikki thought to herself for a second then quickly flew up to Marinette's bed and tossed down a large book. I walked over to it and picked it up.

"Thanks." I said.

I turned around when something in the corner of the room caught my eye. I glanced over to see a long, dark red dress with long sleeves hanging on a onto the dress what a white piece of paper with a rough sketch of a similarly colored dress, but this one was shorter, with short sleeves that looked slide partway down the arm.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Marinette's dress." Tikki replied, "For the party."

"Really?" I asked, unpinning the sketch from the dress.

"Yeah, but she seemed to have forgotten about it."

"Is she going to finish it in time?" I asked. Tikki shook her head.

"There's only two days, and she still has to go to school and help her parents and Charlie with the bakery."

"I see." I replied. I stared at the sketch, then glanced over to the dress. I smiled to myself as an idea popped into my head. I pulled out my phone and started to scroll through my contacts until I saw a woman with dark hair up in a bun and red glasses. I pressed the button and held the phone up to my ear. After only two rings, the woman picked up.

"Hello?" A mature voice said.

"Hey, Nathalie" I began, glancing back down to the sketch. "I need you to do me a favor."


	40. Chapter 40

"Woah!" I exclaimed, looking around the large lobby. It was decorated with gold colored ornaments and the lights were covered in a shade that gave the room a yellowish glow. I admire my surroundings

"Do you like it?" The voice caught me off guard, and I jumped as I turned around. Adrien was standing at the top of the large white staircase, leaning up against one of the columns at that held the railing in place. He had his arms crossed over his chest, as he watched me with a soft smile on his lips.

"Oh, hi Adrien!" I said, returning his smile. "Yes! Everything looks great!"

"Glad you think so! The staff worked hard on it." He replied, unfolding his arms as he started to walk down the stairs. "It took them hours to do it all."

"Well, it looks amazing! I'm really impressed!"

"Yeah…" Adrien stood in front of me, and just looked at me for some time.

"What?" I asked, fidgeting under his stare. "Is something wrong?" Adrien shook his head slowly.

"Nothing's wrong." He said, "There's just… something I want to show you." I looked at him questioningly.

"What is it?" I asked. Adrien started to reach for my hand, when Charlie's voice echoed through the lobby.

"Marinette! Can you help Sabine bring in some of the food?" He called from the doorway. "Tom and I are going to set up the tables now!" I sighed and turned towards the door.

"All right! I'll be right there!" I called back.

"He really knows how to ruin a moment." I heard Adrien mutter.

"A moment?" I questioned. A light shade of pink came to Adrien's cheeks.

"D-did I really say that out loud?" Adrien's eyes slipped to the ground as he asked this. "Uh...C-can I help you guys?"

"Yeah, I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind a little extra help." I smiled at him and we started to walk towards the door. As we arrived at the door, my father was backing into the house, a long white table in his hands with Charlie holding the other side. Adrien and I moved aside as they entered further into the lobby. They moved to the side of the room, placing the down, in front of a small white door.

"There," Dad said, stretching out his arms. "Charlie, go help Sabine, I'll finish up here." Charlie left and Dad pulled out a thin white table cloth and started to unfold it awkwardly. I sighed as I made my way over to him.

"Papa, do you need some help?" I asked.

"Uh… yeah. Here, you'd probably be better at this than me." Dad handed me the table cloth. "I'll go help your mother and Charlie unload the food from the truck." He quickly left. I unfolded the table cloth and spread it onto the table.

"Adrien, could you grab that side?" I jerked my head toward the other side of the table.

"Sure." Adrien walked over to the other side and gripped the tablecloth and fixed it on the other side. However, the second we let go of it, the tablecloth slid off the table. Adrien and I glanced at eachother, then fixed it.

The table cloth fell off again, and we fixed it again. I quickly placed my phone on the table to prevent it from falling again. It was then that my phone vibrated and a bright picture of Nathanael appeared on the screen. Adrien noticed this.

"Nathanael?" He questioned as he reached for my phone. I tried to grab it before he did, but I was too slow. Adrien grabbed my phone and held it above his head as I tried to reach for it.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, "Give it back!"

"Nope!" Adrien teased. "Why's Nathanael calling you?"

"How am I supposed to know if you don't let me answer it?" I replied, almost able to reach it, but Adrien spun around and was suddenly on the other side of me.

"I mean, why does he have your number?" Adrien asked.

"Why do you have my number?" I asked. "I never gave it to you!"

"Why do you have mine?" He asked, tauntingly.

"W-well I… uh…"

"Alya?" I nodded. He laughed, as he swiftly moved toward the other side of the room.

"Hey!" I charged at him, tripping over my own feet and barely managing to catch myself before I hit the floor.

"Are you okay?" Adrien asked, coming closer to me.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I replied, standing up straight. It was then, Adrien started to laugh.

"Y'know, I figured you would be a bit more… graceful in times like these." He teased. I rolled my eyes. Adrien glanced down to my phone again, tapped on it and held it up to his ear. "Hello, Nathanael!" I quickly tried to get my phone away from him, but he kept moving away from me. "Marinette can't talk right now, she's too busy hanging out with me."

"Adrien!" I exclaimed, "Give my phone back!" I was somehow able to trip him and he fell, dropping my phone in the process.

"Was that graceful enough for you?" I said, picking up my phone. Adrien just laughed. I held the phone to my ear. "Hello? Nath? Hi! Sorry about that! Adrien was being difficult." I glared down to the blond who was just laying on the floor, a smirk on his face that I could only describe as Chat like. Ever since I decided to be Ladybug again, more and more of Chat Noir's personality peeked through Adrien whenever the two of us were alone. It started with smirks, then the endless teasing, then the occasional sarcastic reply. Although it annoyed me slightly, I couldn't really say I hated it.

"O-oh... Is this a bad time?" Nathanael asked, "I can call back later."

"No! It's fine! What do you need?"

"Well… I was wondering if you were free later tonight? I-I mean, uh, there's this movie out that I want to go see, and I wanted to know if you… if you wanted to go with me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Nathanael. I kinda already have plans tonight."

"With… Adrien?" Nathanael asked.

"Uh…" I glanced down to Adrien, who was still, for some reason, on the floor. "Sorta. But maybe we can go next weekend?"

"Sure! Does next Saturday work?"

"I don't have anything planned, so it should!" I replied.

"Great! I can't wait until then!" Nathanael quickly hung up the phone.

"You might want to reschedule that date." Adrien remarked.

"It's not a date." I said, "And why would I need to reschedule it?"

"You'll be busy next weekend." Adrien said, finally picking himself off the floor.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"I just know." He taunted. I was about to reply when my thoughts were interrupted.

"Marinette! I thought you said you were going to take care of the tablecloth!" Dad exclaimed, coming in from outside with a large white box in his hands. I turned my head to the table and noticed that the tablecloth had fallen off again.

"Sorry! I thought it stay." I quickly went over to the table and fixed the cloth. After, I helped unpack the food from the white box and arranged it on the table. I glanced over to where Adrien had been, only to discover he was gone.


	41. Chapter 41

I peeked my head out from the kitchen door to see a mass of people, all dressed in tuxedos and pastel colored gowns with many different styles and designs.

"There sure are a lot of people here." I muttered. I turned my head back to my parents. "Are you sure we made enough?"

"Don't worry, Marinette. If we happen to run out, we have extra ingredients here, so we can always make more." Mom replied, as she stretched out her arms. She grabbed a small silver tray with a cover on it. "Here. Bring this to Charlie and tell him to find a place for it." I nodded and took the tray from her.

I pushed the door open with my shoulder to be greeted with a long white table with piles of different pastries stacked neatly on top of it. I made my way around the table to see Charlie standing awkwardly in front of the table with his arms behind his back.

"Hey, Charlie." I said, "My mom told me to tell you to find a place for this." I extended the silver tray to him. He looked at it, then to the table.

"I can probably find a place for it." Charlie took the tray from me and started to move things around on the table. I turned my attention to the people who crowded the room and soon noticed Nathalie, who was walking over to me.

"Hello, Miss Marinette." Nathalie greeted.

"Oh, Nathalie, hi!" I replied.

"Why aren't you joining the party? Aren't you supposed to meet Mr. Agreste tonight? I hope you aren't planning on wearing that…"

I gasped loudly as my hands found their way to my hair and tugged violently.

"I forgot about my dress!" I exclaimed , "I can't believe this! I can't meet Gabriel Argeste dressed like this!" I heard Nathalie laugh a little.

"Don't worry, I think I might have something that would fit you." She said. I glanced her. "Come with me, Miss Marinette." Nathalie gestured towards a door in the back of the kitchen. I nodded and we entered the door. We walked down a long hallway and up a flight of stairs. We arrived at a small room full of different types of clothing sprawled out all over the place.

"Wow." I muttered, admiring the clothes.

"Hm… Where could I have put it." Nathalie muttered, looking around the room. She then walked over to a desk. "Oh here it is." She pulled up a short red dress from the desk. My eyes widened as I slowly recognized the design of the dress. From the short hem of the skirt, to the sash around the waist that lead to a large black bow around the back with the excess fabric used to create a two long tails that reached far passed the hem of the skirt. Nathalie turned to me.

"Do you like it?" She asked, extending the dress to me. I took it from her, completely speechless as I looked over it. It was perfect. Every little detail I had sketched, every detail I planned appeared on the dress.

"It's…" I began, continuing to glance over the dress. "Perfect." I looked up to her. "Where did you-" I stopped mid sentence. "Adrien?" She nodded as she handed me the sketch I thought was still pinned to my unfinished dress.

"He saw it and knew that you probably wouldn't have been able to finish it yourself, so he asked me to do it." She pulled back a curtain that just had a body sized mirror behind it. "You can change here." I nodded and moved behind the curtain. Nathalie let go of the curtain and I heard her walk to the other side of the room.

I slowly starting to put on the dress and stared at myself in the mirror. The dress fit me amazingly well. It showed off my figure pretty well, and made me quite self-conscious, which made no sense considering what I wore when I was Ladybug. The sleeves rested gently in between my elbows and my shoulders, and the skirt ended just above my knees. I gripped my bare shoulders, nervously.

"Is something wrong?" Nathalie's voice called. "Is it too small?" I peeked my head from the curtain.

"N-no! It's not that! It's perfect!" I replied, with a small smile.

"That's good! Can you come out a little more so I can make sure everything looks right." I did as she said and she started to make adjustments to the dress. "Everything looks right, but I feel like there's something missing." Nathalie rested her knuckle on her chin as she examined me. Then she seemed to notice something. Nathalie gently tugged at my pigtails and my hair fell to my shoulders. "There." She said, turning me around so I could see myself in the mirror. "You look amazing."

"Y-you think so?" I asked, running my fingers through my hair.

"Yes." Nathalie replied. She then she turned me toward the door. "Now, you should get down there. Adrien is probably waiting for you."

"Yeah." I replied as I moved toward the door and opened it. I turned back to Nathalie. "Thank you." She smiled and nodded at me. I slowly closed the door and started to walk down the hallway untill I saw a large doorway with no door but a yellow light beaming through it. I made my way through it and found myself on the main staircase, looking over the entire party.

Panic filled me as I scanned the room of unfamiliar faces. My eyes suddenly landed on Adrien, who was gently pushing a blond haired girl away from him. I didn't even have to see her face to know it was Chloe. I stood at the top of the stairs, watching them until Adrien turned his head up toward me quickly, then back down to Chole. Almost a second later his head turned up to me again, his eyes wide. I looked away from him, my cheeks burning as I gripped my shoulders again. Eventually, Adrien joined me on the stairs, against Chloe's complaints. Adrien was silent for a moment as he glanced over me from head to toe.

"Marinette." He muttered, I still didn't look at him. "You look… beautiful. I mean, not that you don't always- I MEAN- I, uh... didn't mean to say that" I quickly covered my mouth with my hand as a giggle slipped from my lips.

"W-what?!" He asked.

"I-I'm sorry I just… I was just expecting a more Chat like response!"

"Yeah… Honestly, so was I." Adrien rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as she both laughed a bit before Adrien grabbed my hand and started to lead me down the stairs. "Come on." He said, "You want to meet my father, right?" I stared at him for a minute, then nodded happily as he continued to drag me into the crowd of people.


	42. Chapter 42

Adrien and I stood quietly behind a tall, blond man who was speaking to a number of other people. I felt a sudden rush of anxiety hit me as I realised that I was about to meet my lifelong role model. Luckily, Adrien had not released my hand yet so I gripped his hand tighter.

"You okay?" Adrien whispered. I nodded, taking a deep breath. "Nervous?"

"H-how could I not be?!" I whispered back, gripping his hand tighter. "He's my idol, Adrien!"

"I figured as much." Adrien replied, his eyes shifting to the side. "You have nothing to worry about, Marinette." Adrien then started to walk up closer to the man.

"Wait!" I pulled Adrien back toward me, "What if he doesn't like me?"

"He will." Adrien reassured me, "I don't know a single person who doesn't like you, Marinette!"

"I do."

"Who?" He asked, raising an eyebrow .

"Chloe." I muttered. Adrien chuckled.

"Chloe doesn't count." He replied, shaking his head. "Come on, no more stalling!" I nodded as Adrien let go of my hand. He walked up to the man and waited for him to stop speaking with the group of people.

"Excuse me, Father?" Adrien muttered, quietly. The man turned to him.

"Adrien." He spoke with a booming voice. "What do you need?"

"I wanted to introduce," Adrien gestured toward me with his hand, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Adrien then turned to me. "Marinette, this is my father."

"N-nice to meet y-you, Mr. Agreste!" I smiled awkwardly.

"Ah, so you're the girl who crashed the winter photoshoot." Mr. Agreste replied.

"Yeah… I mean, I didn't mean to, it just sort of happened! Not that I didn't have fun doing it... I-I just…" I stopped talking, knowing what ever came out of my mouth next would be even more embarrassing.

"Marinette's an aspiring fashion designer." Adrien said.

"Is that so?"

"Y-yes!" I replied.

"Marinette's the one who won the bowler hat contest this year." Adrien continued.

"Oh, yes, that contest." He then stared at my dress. "That dress…" Mr. Agreste said, not seeming to be phased by my awkwardness. "You designed it?"

"Uh… yeah." I replied, as he started to walk around me.

"It's plain, childish, yet elegant at the same time." Mr. Agreste crossed his arms as he continued to stare at my dress. "...I like it."

I felt joy overwhelmed me, as I nearly screeched in happiness.

"T-thank you!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, well, if you excuse me." Mr. Agreste quickly moved away from us and joined a group of people.

"That went well." Adrien said, turning to me.

"I-I-I guess…" I replied, still feeling quite overwhelmed.

Adrien grabbed my hand and lead me to a different room. In the room sat a large grand piano.

"I figured you would need some time to calm down after that." Adrien said, moving over to the piano. He lifted up the cover of the keys and sat down. He started to play it softly. I slowly made my way over to him. It was then Plagg flew out of Adrien's shirt.

"I'm hungry!" He exclaimed. Adrien sighed.

"There's plenty of food in the other room. go get some." Adrien replied.

"I don't wanna go alone!" Plagg whined. Tikki poked her head out of one of my sleeves.

"I'll go with you." She said.

"Then let's go!" Plagg and Tikki quickly moved to the other room.

Adrien turned his attention back to the piano and I watched his fingers danced across the keys.

"It must be easier without your cast on." I said. "Has anyone asked about it?"

"Surprisingly, no. Those butterflies you freed must have-"

"We."

"Huh?"

"We freed them. I honestly couldn't have done it without you." He was about to say something in protest, but shook his head and continued to play.

"You know, I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano." Adrien looked up to me. "Could you show me?"

"Can you read music?"

"Just the basic treble clef." I replied.

"Good, that's all you'll need for right now." Adrien stood up from the piano and walked over to an old bookshelf that stood in the corner of the room. He pulled out a thin book from one of the bottom shelves and sat back down at the piano. He patted the small space beside him and I sat next to him.

"We'll work on one hand at a time." He said, opening the book and placing it over the loose pieces of paper that he using. Adrien pointed to one of the keys. "This is middle C. In the C hand position, the thumb on your right hand goes here." Adrien gently picked up my right hand and positioned it on the keys of the piano.

After learning the basics of the piano, Adrien had me play a number of simple songs that weren't so simple for me to play. Adrien was playing along with his left hand. I played one wrong note, then two, then three. I sighed.

"S-sorry, I keep messing up!" I said, dropping my hand from the piano.

"Don't worry, it takes a lot of practice." Adrien's right hand replaced where mine had just been and he continued to play without missing a single note.

"Adrien Agreste, is there anything you can't do?" I laughed as I said this. Adrien immediately stopped playing.

"There are plenty of things I can't do, Marinette." He said, staring at his frozen hands on the piano. " I can't swim, I can't ride a bike, I can't play baseball, I can't even tell the girl I love how I feel. Even when..." Adrien's hands slipped from the piano and rested in his lap as he turned to face me. " She's sitting right next to me." I stared at him for a second, a little confused at his statement, then suddenly realizing what he meant. I looked away from him.

"No." I said, pushing myself off the bench as I stood up. "You don't love me." I walked towards the door and leaned up against the frame, crossing my arms over my chest. "You love Ladybug." Adrien was silent for a minute.

"That's true." He finally said, "I do love Ladybug." I closed my eyes tightly, as I felt my heart sink to my stomach. I heard Adrien stand up and walk over to me. He gently placed his hands on my shoulders as he stood behind me."But…" He whispered into my ear, "I'm in love... with Marinette." My breathing stopped as I turned to face him.

"What?" I whispered. Adrien gently placed his hands on the sides of my face and forced me to look up at him.

"I'm in love with you, Marinette." He used his thumb to brush away a tear that I didn't know had fallen. I gently pushed him away and looked to the floor.

"Don't play with me Adrien." I said.

"I'm not." He replied. "Marinette, look at me." I shook my head. "Marinette, please." I peeked up to him. he had the most sincere look that I had ever seen one someone's face. All I could do was stare at him.

Was he really serious? He loved me? As in the Marinette me? There was no way it was true. He loved Ladybug, he always had. This didn't make sense. Why did he, all of a sudden, claimed he loved me?

My thoughts were soon interrupted when Tikki and Plagg suddenly appeared into the room, a look of urgency plastered on each of their faces.

"Tikki? What's wrong?" I asked, then my questioned was suddenly answered by a screams coming from the other room.


	43. Chapter 43

Adrien and I slowly peeked our heads out of the door, expecting to see some sort of Akuma, but what we saw was far more terrifying. Everyone from the party had been gathered in the middle of the room by several tall men.

"What in the world?" Adrien muttered, gently tugging me back into the room. He closed the door as quietly as he could and turned to me. "I don't know what is going on, but something tells me that we need to transform now before something serious happens."

"I think so too." I replied, glancing over to Tikki. "Let's go, Tik-" The door to the room swung open and a man with brown hair stood in the doorway, glaring down at us.

"Out. Both of you!" The man said. I glanced to Adrien who had a firm grip on my wrist. He glared back at the man. "Now!" I flinched at the harsh tone the man had used as Adrien began pulling me out the door. We joined the large group in the center of the room.

"For such a big party with so many important people, you would think there would be more security." I muttered, quietly.

"I thought my father had hired more…" Adrien's head jolted up as he looked at each of the men that surrounded us. "Apparently, he didn't do a very good job. These are the guys he hired."

"Marinette!" My mother embraced me as soon as she saw me. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine Maman." I replied, noticing Adrien still held my wrist tightly. Mom must have noticed this too, because what she did next surprised both of us. Mom grabbed Adrien and brought him into her arms along with me.

"I'm so glad you _both_ are all right!" She said. Adrien stared at me wide eyed as my mother continued to hug us. I just smiled at him. It wasn't until we heard a loud thumping coming from the stairs that she let go of us. We quickly turned our heads to see a black haired woman lying face down at the bottom of the stairs.

"Nathalie!" I exclaimed, breaking away from Adrien and quickly running over to her. I placed my hand on her back as she struggled to her knees. "Are you all right?" She glanced to me, her glasses cracked a little but otherwise seemed to be okay. "What happened?"

"Back in line!" A man with brown hair and blue eyes exclaimed from the top of the stairs. He looked somewhat familiar to me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where I had seen him before. The man took a step down the stairs.

"I'm all right, Miss Marinette." Nathalie said, sitting upright. The man took another step down the stairs. Nathalie glanced up to the man, terror in her eyes. "We should go join the group." I nodded as I helped her to her feet. She struggled a bit, and seemed to be dizzy, but was able to get lean on me as we walked back over to the group. I gently brought Nathalie down to the floor so she could sit somewhat comfortably.

"Thank you." She said. I smiled at her, then quickly glanced up to Adrien, who had made his way through the crowd to get closer to us.

"What are we going to do?" I asked in a whisper, gripping his sleeve as I brought him closer so I could reach his ear. "If neither of us can get away then-"

"I know." Adrien replied. "If there was some way to create a distraction." Adrien and I glanced around the crowd and the room, trying to find something we could use. Anything.

"Adrien-" I began.

"Four." He muttered.

"What?" I asked.

"There are seven of them. Four have guns."

"What?!" I repeated a little louder. I quickly looked at each man carefully. Three were incredibly tall, well built and intimidating while the other men seemed average in height and weight. Adrien and I could take them on easily. There was no hint of a gun on any of them. "I don't see any. Are you sure?" He nodded.

"My father assigned four of them guns. He tends to do it with people he feels aren't physically able to handle themselves."

"Where on earth did your father get guns?" Adrien shrugged.

"No idea. But my guess is he gave them to the scrawnier bunch." There went the idea of us being able to take them.

"What do you think they want?"

"Money, probably."

"I'm not so sure." Charlie remarked, coming closer to us..

"What do you mean?" I asked him. He just shook his head. It was then Mr. Agreste spoke to the group.

"What do you want?" Mr. Agreste asked, he sounded more annoyed than scared. "I don't appreciate the fact that I gave every single one of you a job and you turn and decide to attack my guests. What ever it is you are after, I'll give it to you."

"There's nothing we want from you." The man from the stairs said, "We have a better offer from a different source." He scanned the crowd with his eyes. He then began pointing at certain people in the crowd. He pointed to a tall woman wearing a green dress, to another who wore a pink one, to Chloe, to a man with red hair, and then to me.

One of the thinner men came closer to me, a perverted grin on his face. I took a step back when he suddenly reached for me, only to be stopped by Adrien's hand latching onto the man's arm.

"Don't touch her." Adrien said, his voice deep and threatening, as his grip on the man's arm tightened. Adrien wrapped his other arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

"A-Adrien…" I muttered. I tried pulling away, but that just caused him to pull me in even closer so that my hands rested on his chest. Not once did he take his eyes off of the man in front of us.

I looked up to Adrien in shock and bewilderment, his eyes were full of rage and his teeth were clenched tightly. I had never seen him like this. Not as Adrien, and not as Chat Noir. My heart pounded as my hands softly gripped the black jacket of his suit. Adrien glanced to me, the anger in his eyes immediately subsiding, and a gently smile formed on his lips. He turned his attention back to the man, the rage returning to his eyes.

The man attempted to reach for me again. Adrien skillfully kicked his feet out from under him, causing the man to fall on his back. This caught the attention of the other men. And they practically ran over to us. I tugged on Adrien's sleeve.

"Go." He whispered. "I'll try to distract them to the best I can."

"But-" I was cut off.

"Marinette, there's no time to argue, go!" I nodded as I slowly pushed my way through the crowd and quickly was able to get into the kitchen, hopefully, without being seen.

"Tikki!" I panted. Tikki flew out of my sleeve. "Let's go! Hurry!"

A bright pink light engulfed my body, as a thin red mask with black dots formed around my eyes. A light ran down my body, replacing my short dress with a flexible bodysuit. Finally, a small yo-yo appeared, it's thin cord wrapped around my hips. As the pink light disappeared, the sound of a loud bang echoed through the house.


	44. Chapter 44

I quickly pushed my way out of the kitchen to see all of the men gone while the crowd was hysterical, screaming and crying. I entered the room and looked around for Adrien before I was spotted by Mayor Bourgeois.

"Ladybug!" Mayor Bourgeois came up to me rather quickly. "Please, those men took my beloved daughter! You have to go after them!"

"Chloe?" I questioned. He nodded. It was then Mr. Agreste and my parents came up to me as well.

"Ladybug! Please, they have Charlie! He's an employee of ours… and our- our." My mother buried her face in her hands.

"Our daughter's missing too, we didn't see them take her, but we can't find her!" Dad said, taking my mother into his arms.

"My son as well." Mr. Agreste said calmly, with almost no emotion at all. I glared at him slightly. Could he really be that cold hearted to not even care that his son was just kidnapped?

"I heard a gunshot." I said, "Was anyone hurt?" They all shrugged.

"We couldn't really see anything that was happening." Dad replied. "All of a sudden there was a bang and they were dragging the kids off."

"All right, thanks for your help." I began to turn when I was stopped.

"Ladybug! Please find our daughter!" Mom said through her tears, "She's everything to us!" I stared at her for a second then walked over to her. I placed my hands on her shoulders.

"Don't worry." I said. "I'm sure Marinette's fine."

"How did you know her-" Mom's eyes squinted at me a bit then open wide as she studied my face. I could see the relief wash over her. "Good luck, Ladybug." Was all she could say as she wiped her eyes. I turned and started to make my way out of the house when I was stopped again.

"Ladybug." I turned to see Nathalie, she had removed her broken glasses and seemed to hold something in her hand. She handed me two small red elastics. I quickly glanced up to her. Nathalie brought her finger to her lips. "I won't tell."

"Thank you." I said, glancing over to my mother and fixing my hair into the usual bouncy pigtails. I then left the house, tossed my yo-yo up to the roof and pulled myself up. I stood on top of the roof as I realized that there were now three people who knew who I was. I sighed.

I looked around the streets that surrounded the house. They couldn't have possible gotten far in the single minute it took me to transform. Unless, of course they had a car. If that was the case then they could have been anywhere at this point. I had to find them soon.

I brought up my yo-yo up to my face and pressed the dot in the middle until it displayed a green phone icon. The yo-yo opened and I held it up to my ear. Several rings were heard but there was no answer. He wasn't picking up. I closed my yo-yo.

"Alright, then I'll try someone who always answers her phone." I muttered, as I pressed the middle dot again until it turned green and opened again.

"Hello?" The squeaky voice exclaimed.

"Chloe Bourgeois?" I asked. She gasped.

"Ladybug?! Oh my gosh! Hi! I knew you would call me eventually!" Chloe continued to yap on and on about how we were the best of friends or something. She seemed to be totally oblivious to how much danger she was in.

"Chloe." I said sternly. "Are Adrien and CHarlie there with you?"

""Uh, yeah-"

"Give the phone to Adrien."

"Um, but-"

"Chloe, now!" The phone was handed off.

"H-hello?" Adrien's voice sounded strained, almost as if he were in pain.

"Adrien? Where are you?"

"I-I don't know. We're in some s-sort of… truck, maybe?"

"Truck?" I questioned, "Like one that you would if you were moving?"

"I don't know. It's pretty small, though- AH!" The phone suddenly sounded like it dropped. The noise of shuffling could be heard for some time but was soon replaced by Adrien's struggling breath.

"Adrien, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah. I-I'm fine. You have to hurry, Ladybug. Please. I-I can't stop the bleeding." Panic immediately took over all other emotions and thoughts I had.

"Bleeding?!" I exclaimed, "What bleeding?!"

"Hurry… Please."

"Don't worry, Adrien! I'm on my way!" I quickly hung up and used my yo-yo to track the signal of the phone. A small dot appeared on the large map of Paris, and was heading in a steady direction.. It wasn't too far from Adrien's house, but was moving fast. If I didn't leave that second, I would never catch up to them. I quickly tossed my yo-yo up to another building and made my way to an area where I was going to cross paths with the truck that Adrien thought they were in.

Sure enough, after only about two minutes, a small truck came racing down the street. I hooked my yo-yo onto the bumper of the truck and pulled myself toward the doors. I kicked the doors open and landed in the truck safely, hearing the two doors click as they closed behind me.

"Ladybug!" Chloe practically screeched, "I knew you would come to save me!" I quickly hushed her as I glanced over to Adrien.

"L-Ladybug." Adrien muttered, his eyes full tears and his hand was covered in blood. He was shaking slightly as he continued to apply pressure to the wound on the chest that wasn't his. Charlie rested in his lap, his eyes closed as he struggled to breath. "H-he just jumped in front of the gun… I-I don't know why. I-I c-couldn't stop him." Adrien continued to tremble as he spoke. I knelt down to him and placed my hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. I glanced to Charlie.

"This is bad." I said, as I stood up. "We have to get him out of here-" The truck suddenly jerked violently, nearly throwing me off my feet. Then, it stopped. I quickly tried to open the doors, only to discover they were locked. "No!" I exclaimed, banging on the doors. "No!"

I took a step away from the doors. "Lucky Charm!" I exclaimed, throwing my yo-yo up into the air, only to be rewarded with a thin, red sheet. "How is this supposed to help?!" Then, I glanced over to Charlie. I dropped to my knees as I ripped the sheet in half and started to wrap his chest with it. Adrien had removed his hands, they were still stained with Charlie's blood. "What are we going to do? There's no way we can get out now. Unless you-" I suddenly heard the beep of my earrings I covered one of them with my hand. "No, no! Tikki, not in front of Chloe!" I looked at Adrien.

"I'll do it." Adrien muttered, standing up. I looked at him, then glanced over to Chloe.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"What other choice do we have?" He replied. "If we don't get out now, you'll transform back." Adrien glanced down to Charlie. "Plagg," He said, Plagg flew out of his shirt. Chloe let out a shriek when she saw him.

"What is that thing?!" She exclaimed. Adrien shook his head.

"No time to on, Plagg!" I watched as Plagg got sucked into Adrien's ring as a blinding green light appeared. Soon enough, Chat Noir stood in front of me. Chloe let out a surprised gasp as she stared at him. Chat Noir ignored her as she spat out incomprehensible sentences. He moved closer to the doors and raised his hand. "Cataclysm!" A small black ball formed in his hands and he closed his hand around it, causing it to shatter and the pieces surrounded his hand.

Chat Noir pressed his hand against the doors and they collapsed soon after. He quickly grabbed Chloe and pulled out his staff.

"I'll get her back to the party, do you have enough time to get him to the hospital?" I tossed Charlie's arm over my neck as I heard another beep from my earrings.

"I should." I replied, "I'll meet you back there." He nodded as we suddenly heard footsteps coming from the other side of the truck. I quickly tossed my yo-yo up to a building as Chat Noir started to extend his staff and we went our separate ways.


	45. Chapter 45

I continuously scrubbed my hands under the warm water as I watched the stream of red liquid flow down the drain. Even after I had washed off all the blood, I continued to scrub until I felt as though I had washed all remnants of the liquid was off my hands. I wiped them on a towel and left the bathroom. I entered the lobby to see it practically empty. The only people left were Chloe and her father, Marinette's parents, and a few police officers. Nathalie and Gorilla were both speaking to the officers and my father was, as usual, nowhere to be found. I sighed as I moved over to the stairs and sat down. It wasn't long before Chloe came up to me.

"Where's Marinette? Her parents are still here." She said.

"She's probably speaking with the police outside." I lied, trying to provide a cover for Marinette.

"Oh really…?" Chloe replied, her voice melodic. She quickly took a seat next to me. "So… Chat Noir, huh?"

"You can't tell anyone." I said, sternly.

Having known Chloe for such a long time, I expected her to say something along the lines of not to tell her what to do, but instead I received a simple, "I know." I glanced over to her. She hooked her hands together and stretched her arms out.

"So, do you know who Ladybug is?" Chloe asked, a sincere and curious look in her eye.

"I might." I replied.

"Can you tell me?"

"If I did, she'd probably kill me."

"Is it someone I know?" I shrugged.

"Maybe."

"Do you love her?" I stared at Chloe in shock.

"Who?" I asked.

"Ladybug." Without hesitation, I shook my head.

"No," I said.

"But you do love someone, right?" I continued to stare at her. "You've changed a bit lately. You haven't been as reserved, and you've seemed happier, especially in school. So naturally, something really good has happened to you. Was it love?" I smiled lightly.

"Is it really that obvious?" I asked, she nodded.

"Who is it?" She asked, I shook my head.

"I'm not going to tell." She quietly laughed.

This quiet, and joyful version of Chloe was the one I had known when we were younger, although, if I remembered correctly, she was still bossy and a bit mean, but it was the real Chloe. Not the act I saw in school, or when other people were around. I wondered why she would hide this part of her from the world. But then again, who was I to talk?

"It's Marinette… Isn't it?" Chloe suddenly said. I didn't reply to her. "I knew it." She laughed a bit. "I'm not surprised at all, everyone loves her. I mean, how could they not?" Her voice started to waver as she started to wipe her eyes. "She's sweet, honest, kind, pretty, and talented. She's… She's everything I'm not." She buried her face in her hands and started to sob.

"Chloe…" I muttered moving closer to her.

"Do you know how many days I go to sleep, wishing the next day that I could wake up and be her?!" I watched her cry, unsure of what I could possibly say to her. She was able to calm down a bit. "But I know that there's just no way I can match up to her!"

"So you try to tear her down?" I asked.

"Keyword; _try_. I never seem to be able to crush her spirit as easily as some others."

"Chloe, that makes you sound like an awful person."

"I am!" She laughed, "You've known me long enough, Adrien. Don't you think so?"

"No." Chloe stared at me in shock. "I think you make bad decisions, but I know you aren't a bad person." I smiled at her. Our attention soon turned to the other side of the room when we heard Marinette's parents let out a shriek of happiness. Marinette was being embraced tightly by her mother and father.

"Go." Chloe said, "It looks like she probably needs you more than I do right now."

"Chloe, you don't have to be jealous of Marinette. If you just be a little nicer and stop picking on people-,"

"As if!" Chloe crossed her arms and stuck her nose up into the air. "I have a reputation to keep!" I sighed as I turned away from her and made my way over to Marinette on the other side of the room.

Marinette noticed me coming and pulled away from her parents.

"How's Charlie?" I asked, as I drew closer to her.

"He'll be fine. He lost a lot of blood, but the doctors said he should pull through, as long as the surgery goes well." Marinette replied.

"That's good." I said, noticing that she was refusing to look at me. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I thought it was you." She whispered.

"What?"

"I thought it was you who was shot!" She repeated, pushing me away.

"I-I'm sorry." I replied.

"'Sorry' isn't good enough! You scared me half to death, you jerk!" Marinette started to beat on my chest with her fist as her eyes filled with tears. "You couldn't have just told me it was Charlie who got shot?! You couldn't have just said that?! I was so worried about you!" She beat on my chest harder. "You jerk!" She placed her forehead on my chest. "I hate you! I hate you, Adrien Agreste!" I wrapped my arms around her tiny frame. "You're such a jerk!" She slowly collapsed to her knees and I followed as she sobbed into my chest. "I… hate…you..." I held Marinette closer to me as I waited for her to calm down a bit. I stroked her back softly in an effort to help her relax. It seemed to work because after a little while, she stopped crying and pulled away from me. "You're such a jerk." She said.

"So you've told me." I replied, smirking a bit. She rolled her eyes at me.

We sat like on the floor for a while. She called me a jerk a few more times, but I didn't mind, I deserved it for making her worry like that.

At one point, while she was pouting, I was able to pull her into me again so that she practically sat on my lap. This caused an adorable shade of pink to tint Marinette's cheeks as she pushed me away, muttering something that involved me being too much like Chat. I laughed.

As I smiled at her, I noticed Chloe, still sitting on the stairs. She was staring back at us with a small, sad smile on her face.


	46. Chapter 46

"Are sure you're okay?" I asked as Adrien and I stood beside Charlie's hospital bed.

"No worries, Marinette! I'll be good as new in a couple weeks!" Charlie replied, smiling brightly at me. "I should be back in the bakery in no time!"

"Well, I'm not sure about that." Felicia said, entering the small room, while she carried a small silver tray with some sort of food on top of hit. She handed the tray to Charlie, as she did, a small piece of paper fell out of her pocket. "You need to rest a bit more, even after you leave the hospital."

I walked over to the odd piece of paper and picked it up. As I did I peeked at the paper to see that it was a smaller version of the photo that hung above the fireplace at their house.

My eyes immediately recognized the brown haired man in the photo. It was the man who had pushed Nathalie down the stairs at the party.

"Oh, my photo!" Felicia exclaimed. I handed it to her. "Thank you, Marinette." I nodded as I hurried back over to Adrien.

"I really owe you one, Charlie." Adrien said.

"Don't worry about it." Charlie replied, he turned to look at Adrien.

"It really should have been me though." Adrien glanced down to the ground

"Hey, don't say something like that." Charlie said, placing his hand on Adrien's shoulder. "You'll make Marinette upset!" Adrien glanced over to me, I gripped his arm.

"Sorry, we need to go." I said, suddenly as I picked up my backpack from the ground. Adrien must have noticed the urgency in my voice.

"Yeah, we're going to be late for school."

"All right, come visit again soon!" Felicia waved us off as we left the room. As soon as we were outside of the room Adrien turned to me.

"What is it?" He asked.

"One of the men who attacked the party was Charlie's father!" I said. Adrien pulled me closer to him.

"Are you positive?" I nodded.

"I knew I recognized him at the party, but I couldn't remember where! When Felicia dropped that photo I saw him."

"Do you think they know?" I glanced back into the room.

"Probably not." I replied.

"What are we going to do, then?"

"I'm not sure…" I muttered. "We should probably go after him… but we have no idea where he is or what he wants. Unless we figure that out there's nothing we can do."

The sudden bang of something dropping in the nurses' station caused Adrien jump.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh… I thought… Nevermind." Adrien shook his head as he pulled out his phone. "We actually should get going, otherwise we really will be late. Gorilla should be waiting outside." Adrien grabbed my elbow and practically dragged me out the door.

The silver car was sitting directly in front of the exit. The man in the driver's seat started to open his door and stand up, but Adrien shook his head.

As we got closer to the car Adrien opened the back door of the car.

"After you." He said. I slid into the car and Adrien followed after me and closed the door. The man started to the car and started to drive away from the hospital.

"So, Nathalie _and_ your mother know now?" Adrien asked in a near whisper. I nodded.

"My mother may have told my father, so he might know too."

"Geez, we need to be more careful." Adrien sank back into the seat. "Otherwise, everyone in the world will know."

"I'm surprised they don't already." I muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"Chloe. I'm surprised she hasn't told all of Paris yet."

"She promised me she wouldn't." I rolled my eyes at this.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't count on her word."

"Marinette, she really isn't as bad as you think she is." Adrien replied. "She just has trouble expressing herself."

"She does a fine job of expressing her hate for everyone." I let out a frustrated sigh as I said this.

"It's not so much hate as it is jealousy." Adrien muttered.

"Jealousy?" I repeated, "What on Earth could she possibly be jealous of?" He just shrugged.

The car suddenly jerked to a stop. Adrien grabbed his bag, placed it over his head so the strap rested on his shoulder. He opened the door and stepped out. I followed him.

We both walked up towards the school, and into the building. However, we must have been later than we thought. The bell suddenly rang. Adrien and I looked at each other and raced up the stairs and into our classroom.

"Adrien, Marinette." She crossed her arms. "Is there a reason you both are late?"

"Uh, well, you see, Miss Bustier. We were visiting a friend in the hospital and we lost track of time." I said.

"We aren't really that late either." Adrien muttered, his tone laced with attitude.. I elbowed him in the stomach. "Ow. What was that for?"

"Now's not the time to bring Chat out! You're going to get us into even more trouble!" He just laughed.

"Is something funny, Mr. Agreste?"

"Uh, well- Ow!" I elbowed him again.

"I-It's nothing! We'll take our seats now!" I said, quickly making my way up to my desk.

Class went on normally until about halfway through when I noticed Adrien start to act a little strange. He started to shake lightly and look around the room. He stared at his hands for a while, when suddenly-

"Excuse me!" Adrien stood up, "I need to leave!" He rushed out the door, without any answer from the teacher.

"Adrien!" Miss Bustier called after him. "You can't just er-" I stood up.

"Don't worry, Miss Bustier! I'll find him!" I made my way to the door.

"Marinette, you can't just-" I left the room.

I searched around the school for Adrien. In the nurse's office, in the science lab, and in the library. He was nowhere to be found.

"Where could he have gone, Tikki?" Tikki's head popped out of my purse.

"There's one place you haven't checked yet." She said.

"Where?" I asked.

"The bathroom." I shook my head rapidly.

"No way, Tikki! What if someone saw me?!"

"But what if Adrien's in there?"

"I...I guess a quick peek wouldn't hurt." I replied, suddenly feeling like a massive creep. I sighed as I slowly made my way to the boy's locker room.

I peeked my head into the boy's bathroom to see Adrien, furiously scrubbing his hands under the running water.

"Adrien?" I asked, fully standing in the doorway. "What are you doing?"

"I have to get it off." He muttered.

"Get what off?"

"The blood… I have to get it off, all of it." He started to scrub his hands harder.

"Blood?!" I exclaimed, quickly making my next to him and looking into the sink. "Adrien, there's no blood."

"I have to get it off!" His hands started to turn red under the hot water.

"Adrien!" I grabbed his hands and turned off the faucet.

"No, I have to get it off."

"Adrien-"

"I have to."

"Adrien! There's nothing there!" I showed him his hands. He stared at them, then at me.

"Marinette…"

"Adrien, you need some rest." I said, "You obviously aren't okay right now. I'm honestly surprised you even went to go see Charlie today, especially after what happened."

"Marinette, I-"

"Go home. Please." I was practically begging him at this point. "If not for you, then for me! I don't like seeing you like this." Adrien stared at me, then gripped my hand tightly.

"Okay." He agreed, "For you." He smiled. "Just for today."

"No, don't push yourself." I replied. "Take as much time as you need."

"All right, I will." The bell suddenly rang again, Adrien and I stared at each other wide eyed.

We were in so much trouble.


	47. Chapter 47

When I said, "Take your time." I wasn't expecting him to take three days off. It didn't look like he was going to come in today either. I understood why he may have needed so much time, however, it worried me that within the last three days he had never picked up when I called.

I sighed as I tried to focus on the worksheet we had been given for physics. I stared at the equations, utterly confused by the mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. My hands slowly found their way to my hair and tugged at it. Someone suddenly pointed at one of the equations on the paper.

"That one's forty-two." A voice said. I looked up to see a pair of green eyes.

"A-Adrien?!" He just smiled, then walked over to the teacher.

The purple haired woman handed Adrien a few pieces of paper and a folder. She spoke to him for a few seconds, he nodded his head every now and then.

After the two had finished speaking, Adrien turned toward the door of the classroom. Before he left, he turned to me and gave me a little wave. I waved back, he smiled and slowly left the room. As soon as he was gone, Alya elbowed me.

"What?!" She yelled in a whisper. "What am I missing here?! What was that?!"

"W-what do you mean?" I asked.

"You know what I'm talking about! Why did Adrien just wave to you?"

"Uh… because we're friends?" I said.

"Oh, no,no,no. Don't give me that!" Alya said. "That wasn't a normal friendly wave for just anyone! That was a wave specifically for you! There is definitely something going on between you two!"

"W-what?! No! That's not-"

"Oh," Nino said, turning to face us. "So you're completely denying that Adrien confessed to you the night of the party?" Alya gasped as I stared at Nino, mentally cursing him a million times over.

"What?!" Alya exclaimed, catching the attention of the teacher.

"Alya!" She exclaimed, "Pay attention!" Alya sighed.

"We are not done talking about this!" Alya turned her attention back to her worksheet and started to write furiously.

Class ended and we all started to put away our things. As I got up to leave, Chloe stopped me.

"Hey, Marinette." Chloe said. I groaned and turned to face her. "Has… Adrien talked to you at all?"

"No." I said sternly. "Why do you care, anyway?" Chloe looked away.

"H-he's… my friend too." She said in a whisper. In that split moment, all the rage and hatred I had for Chloe disappeared. "I'm worried about him. But… he won't talk to me, not about anything important, anyway. He'll talk to you though. I know he will."

"Chloe… I-"

"You should visit him or something. Just to talk to him to make sure he's okay."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he's all right." Chloe smiled, then flipped her hair.

"Well, then. One less thing for me to worry about! I'm off to Gabriel's, I saw this adorable bag that I just _have_ to get! Of course, _you_ wouldn't know anything about that, now would you?" And with that, she walked off.

"What was that about?" Alya asked. "Why was she being all nice all of a sudden?"

"She's worried about Adrien, just like the rest of us. I think I should go see him." I replied, as I started to make my way out of the classroom.

"But I still need to talk to you!" Alya exclaimed.

"I'll tell you everything later, okay?" I said. "Right now, I should go check up on Adrien."

"Oh, so Adrien is more important than I am?"

"Alya, don't." Nino muttered. Alya let out an irritated sigh.

"I know." She said. Then she turned to me. "Go cheer up your boyfriend!" I smiled and left the room. As soon as I entered the hallway I heard Alya and Nino start to whisper, then laugh.

"Why are they laughing?" I asked. Tikki popped her head out of my purse.

"Maybe it's because you forgot to deny that Adrien was your boyfriend!" My cheeks immediately started to burn as Tikki let out a small giggle of her own.

"Oh, stop it!" I said, poking her head back into the purse. I quickly made my way out of the school and started to walk in the direction of Adrien's house.

It didn't take too long to arrive at the large house with the tall gate surrounding it. I was about to press the small button on the gate when I was noticed by some one on the other side of the gate.

"Miss Marinette?" It was Nathalie's voice.

"Hello, Nathalie." I said, "Is Adrien here?"

"Um, yes he is."

"Can I see him?" I asked. Nathalie hesitated slightly, then pressed a button on the other side of the gate. The large steel gates opened. I slowly made my way through the gate and Nathalie took me inside of the house.

We stood in the lobby, when suddenly the sound of a door slamming echoed through the house and Adrien came stomping out of a room at the top of the stairs.

"Adrien." Nathalie said. He turned to us and immediately noticed me.

"M-Marinette? What are you doing here?" Adrien asked, all of his anger faded away as he took a step down the stairs.

"Um… well, you haven't been answering my texts… I got worried. I mean, I know you just came into school today, but we didn't really get a chance to talk, so I thought we could..." My voice trailed off. Why was I so nervous around him all of a sudden?

"I'm sorry, Marinette," Adrien quickly glared up the stairs. "Now's not really a good time."

"O-oh, I see… Sorry." I replied.

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad you came to check up on me." He was suddenly standing in front to me. "You know, there is one thing I do want to talk to you about."

"What is it?" I asked. Adrien glanced up to Nathalie, who quickly pretended to be texting someone on her phone.

Adrien leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "I never got an answer."

"W- uh, w-what do you mean?" I asked.

"At the party when we were… alone." I felt a blush creep onto my face. Did he have to say it like that?

"O-oh, th-that." My heart started to pound as my blushed deepened, as I remembered what he had said to me that night. How was I going to reply to something like that?

I bit my lip nervously as Adrien stared at me with those bright green eyes of his. All thoughts left my mind as I lost myself in his eyes, my heart started to swell.

"I...I…"

"ADRIEN!" I jumped at the sudden booming voice that seemed to make that house shake.

Adrien sighed and gave me a quick smile.

"Nathalie, can you take her home, please?" He asked, as he turned and started to walk back up the stairs.

"Of course." Nathalie replied.

"Thank you. I'll see you later, Marinette."

"W-wait! Adrien-" He seemed to be ignoring me as Nathalie started to escort me out.

Once outside, Nathalie brought me to a small silver car. She got into the the driver's side while I sat in the passenger seat. Nathalie started the car and pulled away from the house.

"Nathalie?" I muttered. She glanced at me. "What was that about? With Adrien? Why was he acting so odd?"

"You're one to talk." Nathalie replied, laughing a bit.

"What do you mean?"

"You were stuttering. A lot." She replied.

"Was I?" I asked. She nodded.

"It was cute, actually. Honestly, Adrien might think so too. He really likes you, Marinette."

"W-what makes you say that?!" I asked. Nathalie shrugged.

"Just the way he looks at you. His gaze is always so gentle when he's around you." I sank back into the chair. His gaze had always been gentle… to Ladybug.

"Are you sure it's _me_ he's in love with?" I asked. Nathalie sighed.

"You seem pretty convinced that it's not." She replied.

"He loves Ladybug. He always has… And he knows that I'm her… he found out a while ago... I-I just think he claims to love me just because I'm Ladybug."

"You're wrong." I looked over to her. "You may be Ladybug, but it's definitely Marinette he's in love with." She said this with unwavering confidence.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because he's at home, fighting with his father… about you."

"Me?!" I exclaimed. Nathalie nodded.

"Mr. Agreste believes that you are a bad influence on Adrien, he believes that you are purposely making Adrien skip school and run off at random times, causing his schedule to mess up. Mr. Agreste took his phone and practically banned him from having any contact with you. However, Adrien did something that he had never done before."

"What did he do?"

"He stood up to his father. He stood up for you, Marinette. He defended you and fought for you. If that isn't love, I don't know what is."

I sat in silence at I recalled what I had just heard, making sure every word that flooded through my ears was correct. I couldn't believe that Adrien stood up to his father… for me.

The car suddenly stopped.

"We're here." Nathalie said. I quickly got out of the car.

"Nathalie." She looked at me. "Thank you. For everything." Nathalie smiled.

I closed the door and watched the car drive off.


	48. Chapter 48

"Marinette!" My mother called from downstairs. "Nathanael's here!"

"Coming!" I called back, quickly closing the Ladyblog page I had been browsing on my computer and putting my red coat on. "Tikki, come on!" Tikki flew into my pink hat as I wrapped myself in a matching scarf.

I made my way downstairs to see Nathanael sitting on the couch with my parents.

"Ready to go?" I asked. Nathanael stood up and nodded, he then turned and quickly thanked my parents.

"You two have fun! But don't be out too late, it's supposed to start snowing later this afternoon." Mom said.

"Okay, bye!" I closed the door and lead Nathanael outside.

We started to make our way to the subway station, as we spoke about various things. After about a half an hour and two different subway trains, we arrived at the movie theater.

We entered the theater and payed for our tickets. Nathanael and I slowly walked down the the hall that was lined with different rooms, each with a different movie title written above them.

It was then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone in a black sweatshirt following us closely. Panic filled me as I glanced over to a Nathanael, who didn't seem to notice the figure behind us. I was able to calm myself down by convincing myself that whoever it was, they were just going to see the same movie we were.

We entered the theater that the movie we were going to see was playing in and moved toward the middle of the row of seats and sat down. The figure behind us disappeared somewhere else in the theater, causing me to relax a bit.

We took our seats and after a few long commercials, the movie began.

The movie ended almost two hours later the movie ended. Nathanael and I left the theater and we made our way outside and toward the subway station. I noticed the figure following us again.

I watched the figure carefully out of the corner of my eye as Nathanael and I continued to walk. The figure started , panic overwhelmed me as I watched him. He suddenly pulled out a particular light blue scarf. I recognized the scarf almost instantly as it looked similar to the one I had made for Adrien for his birthday. Actually, it looked EXACTLY like the one I made for Adrien. My eyes widened.

He. Did. Not.

I immediately stopped walking. Nathanael turned to me.

"What's up?" He asked. I sighed

"We're being followed." I said, " And I know exactly who it is."

I turned to the figure. They quickly hid behind one of the thin trees that lined the street but they were still clearly visible.

"Adrien!" I practically yelled, I saw the figure flinch. "Adrien, I know that's you! Get out from behind there!" The figure slowly made his way out from behind the tree, rubbing the back of his hooded head.

"H-Hey…" Adrien sad, finally removing his hood. "How, uh...How's it going, you two?"

"Why have you been following us?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I have not been following you!" Adrien immediately denied any wrongdoing.

"Don't lie Adrien! I saw you earlier in the theater!" All color left Adrien's face.

"O-oh…" He turned away from me. He stood awkwardly in front of us. "Uh… well I-"

"I knew it…" Nathanael muttered, with. This caught both of our attention. "You two like each other."

"Wh-what?" I exclaimed, surprised by Nathan's sudden boldness. "W-what makes you say that?!"

"It's kinda obvious." Nathanael shrugged, "I was honestly surprised when you agreed to come on this date with me. I knew there was something going on between you two...I just wanted to see if I had any chance." He let out a sigh. "Anyway, thanks for spending the day with me, Marinette." With a small smile on his face, Nathanael turned and continued to walk down the street.

"Look what you did." I said, turning to Adrien.

"Hey, you were the one leading him on!" He said with a shrug.

"I was not leading him on!" I exclaimed. "At least… I didn't mean to." I sighed. I was an awful person for doing something like that to poor sweet Nathanael.

"But is what he said true?" A Chat like smirk formed on his lips.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you _like_ me?" He was teasing me again. Well, two could play at that game.

"Of course I do." I replied, reaching up to the back of his head. I pulled his head forward until his forehead touched mine. Blushes started to form on both of our faces. "You are my Silly Kitty."

"Y-you… you…" I laughed as the blush on his face deepened. "You're blushing." I pushed him away.

"Not as much as you are!" I replied. "What are you doing here anyway?" I asked, "Aren't you grounded or something?"

"Yep!" Adrien replied. I sighed.

"So, you're grounded and you decided the best thing to do today was to sneak out to spy on me and Nathan?"

"Yep!"

"Really?" I shook my head. I noticed a small white flake fall onto his shoulder. Then another. They soon started to fall steadily. I turned to Adrien, knowing all he was wearing was a sweatshirt.

"Aren't you cold?" I asked, Adrien nodded.

"Yeah, but I'll be fine."

"It's snowing!" I exclaimed to him. He just shrugged. I started to pull of my hat and placed it onto his head.

"No, Marinette, really I'm fine." He reached up to the hat and felt the soft material and his eyes widened. "Marinette… did you make this hat?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked. He then felt the scarf around his neck.

"Because it feels exactly like the scarf my father-" He suddenly stopped and stared at me. A small smile formed on his face. "My father didn't get me this scarf for my birthday, did he?"

I smiled awkwardly. Adrien chuckled.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to." I admitted.

"Why not?"

"I saw how happy it made you when you thought it was from your father…"

"Yeah… But I'm even happier that I know it came from you." Adrien scooped up one of my hands and pressed it to his lips.

"H-Hey!" I exclaimed, pulling my hand away. "Don't do that!" The Chat smirk returned to his face.

"Why not?" He taunted, as he tugged my arm, causing me to fall into his chest. "I thought you liked me."

"Stop it." I pushed him away. It was then I saw a silver car come down the street. I gasped. "Adrien!" He looked over to the street.

"Great." Adrien muttered, "Hide, Marinette."

"Why?"

"If they see me with you, I'll get in a lot more trouble than if they see me alone." The car was pulling up closer. "Hurry!"

I quickly looked around and saw a small alley way where I could easily be hidden. I made a sprint for the alley as the car stopped in front of Adrien. One of the doors in the back of the car opened.

I was expecting Nathalie to come out of the car, but to my surprise, Mr. Agreste stepped out of the car. He instantly started to yell at Adrien. I was too far to hear what he was saying, but I could tell by the expression on Adrien's face it wasn't anything good.

Mr. Agreste removed the hat from Adrien's head and tossed it onto the ground as Adrien got into the car. furiously slammed the door closed and moved to the other side of the car and got in. The car then drove off.

After I was sure the car was gone I made my way out of the alley way and over to my hat. I picked it up and brushed off the fresh snow that had fallen onto it. I sighed and looked down the street where the car had driven off.

I couldn't believe that I had actually looked up to Gabriel Agreste for such a long time.


	49. Chapter 49

I tossed and turned in my bed as I attempted to sleep. Of course, there was no way I was going to. I couldn't get my mind off Adrien. But, then again, that really wasn't anything new. I sighed as I buried my head into my pillow.

"Marinette?" I heard Tikki's voice say. I peeked up to her. "Are you okay?"

"No." I muttered, shifting to lay on my side. "It's Adrien."

"Of course it is." She replied, resting on my pillow. I sighed.

"I feel really bad… Had I not gone out with Nathanael today, Adrien might not have gotten himself into trouble."

"Marinette, you can't blame yourself for something Adrien did out of his own free will." Tikki said.

"But why did he do it? Why would he risk getting in trouble to follow me and Nathanael around?"

"He did it because…" She stopped and looked away from me. "He loves you, Marinette. He may have done it because he was a little jealous, but I think it was mainly because he wanted to make sure you were safe. I think Adrien wanted to make sure Nathanael treated you properly and that he didn't cross any lines."

"That's ridiculous, Tikki."

"Why is it so hard for you to believe?"

"Because, Adrien is Chat Noir."

"So?" I sighed.

"Chat Noir loves Ladybug, not Marinette."

"You really think he loves Ladybug because Chat Noir does?"

"They're the same person!"

"So are you." I stared at her for a moment. "Do you really think that he would fall in love with just anyone who wore a spotted red suit? Every Ladybug is different, Marinette."

It was then I heard tapping coming from my skylight, then I heard it creak open. I felt the bed bounce slightly as some added weight dropped down from the roof.

The unknown weight crawled over my bed until a pair of glowing green eyes met my own.

"Oh, good, you're already awake." Chat Noir said. "Have you been crying?"

"Of course not!" I replied, "I just haven't slept."

"Your eyes are red." He said, settling himself above me with each of his hands gripping my pillowcase.. "It's not a good look for you, My Lady."

"Don't call me that." I turned away from him. He seemed to be surprised.

"But I always call you that."

"No, you don't!" I exclaimed, pushing him away. "You call _Ladybug_ that!"

"Marinette…" Chat Noir drew close to me again. "Every Ladybug is different." He glanced to Tikki as he recited her words.

"So, if someone else was Ladybug, you… you wouldn't have fallen in love with them?"

"No. I don't think I would have." He replied.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, I'm PAWsitive." I rolled my eyes at him as he laughed.

"Why are you here, anyway?" I asked.

"I had to come and see you."

"Why?" I asked again. He stared at me for a second.

"I-I need someone to talk to…"

"About what?"

"My father's… pulling me out of school."

"What?!" I exclaimed, "He can't do that!"

"He can, and he will. He thinks he can stop me from seeing you. But I won't let him." Chat looked down to me again, his eyes were still full of sorrow.

"Chat…Is that really the only thing that's bugging you?" He was quiet for a moment, then his eyes shifted away from me. After a while he spoke.

"Charlie…"

"What about him?" I asked.

"How is he?"

"He's fine." I replied, "My parents went to visit him the other day."

"It should have been me…" Chat Noir whispered, his grip on my pillowcase tightened.

"What?" I asked, not sure if I had heard him correctly.

"It should have been me!" He exclaimed, tears filling his eyes. "I should have been the who was shot! Charlie didn't deserve to be hurt like that! I did!"

"Chat…" I muttered, as I reached up and wiped a tear away from his mask, "Why-"

"I couldn't protect him!" His tears started to drop gently on my cheeks. "What type of a hero can't protect a civilian?! A friend?! What if it had been you?! W-what if I... can't protect you? What if you end up like Rosette because _I_ couldn't protect you?"

"That won't happen."

"How can you be sure? What if Papillon finds a way to create even stronger Akuma? We already have trouble with the ones we already fight, what would happen if he makes stronger ones?"

"Then we'd take them on together!" I replied. Chat stared at me, then gently stroked my cheek with his thumb.

"I-I don't deserve to be here… with you. I'm far too weak, too useless, too… fragile! I should have been shot! I should be de-"

"Don't you dare say that!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him and pulling him closer to me. "That's not you! Adrien, you're amazing in everyway! You're strong, and caring, and gentle, and passionate! And that's what I love most about you!" I squeezed him tighter as I buried my face in the crook of his neck to hide my own tears.

"'Love?'" Chat muttered. I bit my lip as I slowly nodded my head. Chat pulled away and looked down to me. I looked away from him, feeling a blush form on my cheeks. He chuckled. "I really don't deserve you." Chat Noir pulled me closer to him and placed a gentle kiss onto my forehead. "Thank you, my Princess." He muttered, returning to his original position, resting his head on my shoulder. "Can I sleep here tonight?"

"I-I, uh... don't see why not." I replied, extremely flustered at what had just happened. Chat Noir shifted to lay on his side beside me. I saw a bright green flash, then felt an arm wrap around my waist.

As we laid there, my mind wandered back to the events of that day. Specifically, when Mr. Agreste showed up.

"Your father's a jerk." I muttered.

"Trust me, I know." He replied with a chuckle. "But, I really don't want to talk about that anymore tonight."

"You sure?"

"Mm-hm." Adrien started to nuzzle my neck. "Tomorrow, maybe."

"O-okay…" I slowly closed my eyes as I tried to relax my racing heart. As I finally started to drift off into sleep, Adrien spoke.

"Marinette?" He whispered.

"Hm?" I replied, eyes still closed. I felt Adrien shift even closer to me, his breath tickled my ear.

"Runaway with me."


	50. Chapter 50

(A/N: I wasn't planning on posting this today, but after that season finale, I thought we all needed this. Also, it hasn't been beta read yet [My reader already went to sleep… STUPID TIME ZONES!] so sorry if there are more mistakes than usual!)

He gently placed his clawed hands on my hips as he pulled me through the window and into his room as soon as my feet touched the floor, he pulled away and made his way to a large closet. He pulled out a black bag that looked as though it was all ready to go. Did he plan this ahead of time?

I placed the bag I had onto the floor.

"This would be a lot easier if both of us were transformed." I muttered, stretching out my arms.

"We shouldn't wear ourselves out too early, otherwise we may not get to our destination." He replied, as he walked over to his computer desk and opened one of the drawers. He pulled out what looked to be a brown wallet and stuffed it into his bag.

I sighed as I stared at my own bag. Was I really going to do this? Was I really going to leave behind my parents? My friends? All for Adrien?

"Marinette." Chat Noir moved toward me. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"No...YES! I mean…" I looked away from him, "I'm sorry… I-I don't know... "

"I can take you back home." He replied.

"No! I just… I'm not sure this is the right thing to do."

"It's not." Chat replied.

"So...what if we get caught by the police or something?" I asked.

"Then you tell them this was all my idea and that I forced you to come along."

"I'm not going to do that!" I exclaimed.

"Why not? It's not really a lie."

"But you didn't force me to come along! I'm going to because I want to!"

"Do you, though?" He asked I bit my lip. "Why are you really coming with me?"

"I...I can't let you do this by yourself. We're a team, aren't we?" I said. His eyes shifted away from me, as if he was expecting a different answer.

"By now, I was hoping that we were a little more than a team…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nevermind." Chat Noir picked up my bag.

"Where are we going, anyway? Are we completely leaving Paris?"

"No, we can't really do that, after all. We're going to a small apartment close to the Louvre. My mother bought it when I was young. It was kind of her secret getaway when she needed it. Only she and I knew about it, so it should be pretty safe."

"How do you know everything will still be up and running?" I asked.

"I went by there earlier, everything is still working. Electricity, cable, heat. Everything. It's as if some one had been paying for it for all these years..."

"Wait… you went there earlier?" He nodded. "So you did plan this ahead of time!"

"Marinette, I've been planning this for months, but I could never bring myself to just up and leave. That is, until he threatened to pull me away from school… Away from you. There was no way I was going to let that happen."

"So, if I had said no… you still would have gone?"

"Yeah… I would have. I would have told you where I was going, but I still would have left."

"But, you'll still miss school. How is this any different from what your father is doing?"

"Because I have you. And to me, that makes a world of difference." Chat replied.

"Adrien, I really don't think-"

"That's your problem."

"Excuse me?!" I exclaimed, slightly offended by his statement.

"You always overthink things. You never take a chance to just let your actions to the talking, you always choose the mind over the heart." Chat grabbed my hand.

"But that's why we make such a good team-"

"Marinette, don't think of us as a team right now."

"Then what-"

"Just this once, please, listen to what your heart is saying."

What my heart said? Was I ready to leave all the people I knew and loved for Adrien? But, I loved Adrien too. I wanted to go with him, I really did. But I didn't want to hurt those who I was close to.

Which decision would hurt the least amount of people?

"So… what do you say?"

"You're so cheesy." He stared at me for a second, then laughed.

"Considering all Plagg eats is Camembert, yes. I am very cheesy." He leaned in closer to me and I pushed him away.

"I can't." His smile faded.

"Why?"

"I… just can't. I can't leave Alya or my parents. I don't have the heart to cause so much pain to them. I'm sorry." My heart strained as I said those words.

"Don't apologize." Chat sounded disappointed. "There's no need to. I don't blame you for not wanting to go. If I were you, I wouldn't want to leave either."

"Adrien… I-"

"It's okay, really." He was on the verge of tears. "I mean, Adrien Agreste deserves as much pain as he can get, right?"

"That's not what I said!"

"I know… I know. I… I just…" Chat Noir quickly covered his eyes with one of his hands. I could still see the streams of tears flood down both sides of his face. "I was r-really hoping the two of us…"

"Adrien, please don't cry." I gently pried away his hand. "I want to go with you! I do… but-"

"That!" He suddenly exclaimed, "Right there! You're putting logic behind what you think. You aren't trusting your heart like I told you to."

"That's because it only works in movies and books! It doesn't work in situations like this!" Chat Noir grew silent.

"If you refuse to trust your own heart." He placed my hand gently on his chest. "Then trust _mine_." I tried to pull my hand away, but he wouldn't let me. "I want you to come with me, Marinette, but if you really want to go back, I'll bring you."

I felt his heartbeat through his suit, it was pounding against my hand. He really did want me to go with him. But what about my parents? And Alya? I quickly brushed those thoughts out of my head. Adrien wanted me to go with him and because of that, I decided to ignore my mind.

"Let's go." I said Chat stared at me. "I mean it. I'm going with you."

He immediately released my hand and placed the two bags over his shoulders, all with a growing smile on his face.

"I can carry my own bag." I said.

"Don't worry about it." Chat Noir placed a hand on my back. "Ready?" I let out a sigh, then nodded slowly. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me out the window into the freezing cold night..


	51. Chapter 51

"Woah!" I exclaimed excitedly, as I raced over and placed my hands against the large window. "Check out this view!" I looked back over to Adrien, who was placing the bags next to the white couch. "It's amazing! You can practically see all of Paris!" I turned back toward the window and watched the twinkling lights of the city. "Did you and your mother come here often?"

"No," Adrien said, coming to stand beside me. He leaned up against the window, facing me as he rested his head against the cool glass. "Only when she needed a break from everyday life. She'd take me here and we'd play games, watch movies, and she would tell me stories for a few hours." Adrien's gaze slipped from me to out the window. "My mother always told the best stories." He was silent for sometime as he continued to stare out the window.

"Do you miss her?" I asked, stupidly.

"Of course I do. There's not a single day that I don't wonder about where she could be or what she could be doing." He replied. "But, there has been something that has been keeping my mind off of her lately."

"Let me guess, me?" I mocked.

"Oh? I didn't know you were so narcissistic." Adrien chuckled, "But, you are right. You have been keeping me from thinking about her."

"Well, I'm glad I could help." I said jokingly. It was then I let out a small yawn.

"Tired?" I nodded. Adrien jerked his head toward something behind me. "You can have the bed, I'll sleep on the couch." I looked behind me to see a large white door.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, the couch is pretty soft and nice to sleep on."  
"Okay, thank you." I muttered as I let out another yawn. I turned toward the door.

"Wait." Adrien gripped my elbow. I turned to face him. Adrien stared at me for a moment, a light blush on his cheeks, then he pulled me closer to him. He continued to stare at me with sweet and gentle eyes.

"What is it?" I asked, shifting a bit under his stare. Adrien licked his bottom lip, then bit it, nervously.

"Um…" He muttered, eyes slipping from me again.

"What?" I asked again.

"C-close your eyes…"

"My eyes?" I questioned. He nodded. I looked at him suspiciously, but did as he said and closed my eyes.

I felt Adrien gently pull me closer to him as he held my chin. I suddenly felt his forehead against my own. My heart pounded as I felt like I had been in this situation before.

I placed my hand on his chest and gently pushed him away. Adrien looked at me wide eyed.

"Sorry." He said, "Did I go too far?"

"N-n-no! I-it's not that. It's just that… w-we've done this before. Well, sort of… Remember that time you brought me my sketchbook as Chat Noir? Y-you almost… kissed m-me then."

"Yeah… but I noticed you were uncomfortable, so I stopped." Adrien replied, "What about it?"

"D-did you…" I stopped and glanced out the window.

"Did I what?"

"Did you...like me back then, too?" I whispered. Adrien smiled down to me.

"Honestly… I did." He replied, "There has always been something about you, Marinette, something I liked. I don't know if it was your optimism or the way you treated your friends, but I liked it."

"So… when you found out I was Ladybug…"

"I was a little confused at first. I had my suspicions about you being her, but I somehow was able to convince myself that I was wrong."

"You were disappointed, then?"

"No! Not at all. Marinette of all the people who could have been Ladybug, I'm glad it's you."

"But what if I wasn't-"

"We've already been over this." Adrien chuckled.

"I know, I know. But if you did have to chose-"

"You." Adrien gripped my waist and pulled me closer to him. "Without a doubt. You're amazing, Marinette."

"Well, one could say that I'm pretty miraculous." We both stopped and just stared at each other.

"D-did you just…?"

"I've been spending way too much time with you." I said. Adrien broke out into laughter.

"Good night, Princess." he said, dropping his hands from my hips. "Sleep well."

"Good night." I replied, turning away from him. I slowly moved toward the white door and opened it.

I made my way over to the bed and collapsed on top of it. As soon as I did, Tikki flew out of my pocket.

"I can't believe this!" She exclaimed.

"What?" I asked.

"You! This! Everything! I can't believe you did this, Marinette! Why? Why did you come with him?!"

"Do you really think I would have come if I didn't want to?" I said.

"But he's being selfish, Marinette! He's not taking you into consideration! He pulled you away from everyone, just because he couldn't get along with his father!"

"Tikki, don't worry. I have it all under control."

"Under control?! You have all of this under control?! In what way is running away with him considering having this situation under control?!"

"I have a plan, Tikki."

"A… plan?" Tikki questioned.

"I've already texted my parents telling them a little of what is going on and not to worry too much. And I told them to call me out sick for the next few days of school." Tikki relaxed a bit.

"But, can't they track the phone? What if they-"

"I turned it off."

"Okay, but what's the rest of your plan?"

"I'm going to talk to Adrien for a bit and try to get him to calm down and think about what he's actually doing. Maybe I'll change his mind and get him to go home."

"So, you agreed to come with him... because you want to help him?"

"Exactly." I replied, covering myself in the blanket. A simle formed on Tikki's face.

"You left behind your family, your best friend, and everything you own because you wanted to help Adrien." Tikki repeated.

"Yes, Tikki." I replied.

"Marinette, you really do have a heart of gold." Tikki snuggled against my cheek. She then settled beside my head.

I smiled as my mind slowly drifted off into sleep.


	52. Chapter 52

I turned off the shower and let out a frustrated sigh. I leaned up against the cold tiled wall and watched the final few droplets of water fall from the shower head. After a while, I pulled back the glass door and stepped out of the tub. I dried myself off and quickly slipped into a long white T-shirt and gray sweatpants. I brushed my teeth and ran my fingers through my hair. I opened the door and made my way back into the living room.

"Enjoy your shower?" Plagg asked, as he rested on one of the couch cushions. "You took a pretty long one. What were you doing in there?"

"Thinking." I replied as I started to pull off the cushions. "I need a blanket." I looked around the room, but there was no blanket anywhere. I sighed.

I slowly made my way to the white door at the other end of the room.I opened it as slowly and as softly as I could and peeked my head into the room. Marinette was wrapped up in the thick blanket on the bed. She was fast asleep.

I slipped into the room and moved over to the small closet beside the bed. I opened the door slowly and reached up to the top shelf and pulled down a black blanket. I folded it over my arm and closed the door. I glanced down to Marinette.

She was sleeping on her side, using her arm as a pillow even though she had one. Tikki was sleeping beside her head.

I felt a smile form on my lips as I started to move a little closer to her. I leaned over her and placed a gentle kiss against her cheek. She didn't react.

I knew that if she had been awake when I did that, she would have started blushing immediately. I pulled away and made my way out of the room, closing the door behind me.

I walked back over to the couch and lied down, covering myself with the blanket as I did so. I settled onto the couch while Plagg came down and rested on my head. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.

It felt as though only a few seconds had passed before I heard a slight clunking noise that caused me to open my eyes curiously.

Marinette was leaning over the coffee table, holding a small plate of croissants and a small mug of something steaming. I rubbed my eyes and she noticed me.

"Good morning." Marinette said sweetly as she finished placing the plate and cup on the coffee table. "I made some hot chocolate and croissants." I sat up from the couch and yawned.

"Oh, thanks." I muttered, quite surprised by her gesture. I reached for one of the croissants as Marinette took a seat next to me.

I took a bite of the croissant. It was warm and flaky.

"It's probably not as good as the ones my parents make… I didn't have a lot of ingredients to work with."

"No, it's great!" I exclaimed, taking another bite. Marinette let out a sigh of relief.

"Good. I'm glad you like it." She shifted a bit.

"What time is it?" I asked.

" Ten o'clock-ish." She replied, "I didn't know how long you wanted to sleep, so I tried to be as quiet as I could."

"How long have you been up?"

"Only about an hour. Honestly, I'm surprised I got up so early."

"You've only been up for an hour and you made these?" I asked.

"Well… yeah. We needed to eat something for breakfast." Marinette replied. She then turned her attention out the window. "It's pretty cloudy today. I hope it snows again!"

"What would you want to do if it did?"

"Well, I haven't gotten to build a snowman yet this season… oh, but I would like to go skating again, too."

"Then, why don't we?" Marinette turned to me.

"C-can we?!" She asked excitedly.

"If you want."

"Are you sure it's okay? What if we get caught?"

"I highly doubt that anyone is going to pay attention to two teenagers playing in the snow." I replied.

"But what if someone gets suspicious? In case you haven't noticed, your face is plastered on all of the billboards in Paris. Someone's bound to recognize you."

"Well, then I'll go as Chat Noir." I said, as a smirk formed on my lips.

"You will not!" She exclaimed, laughing a bit.

"Why not?" I asked, curiously.

"Because. I want to spend time with _Adrien_." I smiled.

"Then don't worry about getting caught." I said. She sighed.

"Fine. I'm going to get ready." She said, rising from the couch. She grabbed her bag that rested on the floor and moved to the bathroom.

A few minutes passed and I heard the shower start. I took the chance to change my clothes in the bedroom. After I finished, I went back to the living room and waited for Marinette.

When I heard the shower finally turn off, I started to put on my black coat and wrapped the light blue scarf, that I now knew came from Marinette, around my neck.

Marinette appeared out of the bathroom and quickly noticed that I was all ready to go. She smiled excitedly and put on her coat, hat scarf and mittens. She came to join me by the door. I reached for the doorknob when Marinette spoke.

"Wait." I stopped and turned to face her. She started to dig through the bag she held. She pulled out a light blue hat and mittens and extended them to me. "Here. I noticed you didn't have any, so I made you some." I stared at her.

She made me a hat and some mittens. Marinette had taken time out of her day to make me a hat and mittens. Why? Why would she do such a thing for me? Then, I realized something. Why had she come with me in the first place? Marinette had a family and friends who cared about her, and I took her away from them. I felt my stomach drop as I thought about how selfish I was.

"D-do you… Do you not like them?" Marinette's voice broke me out of my daze. She pulled the hat and mittens closer to her chest.

"N-no! I love them!" I exclaimed, reaching for them. I took them out of her hands and quickly put them on. "They match the scarf perfectly! Thank you, Marinette."

Marinette smiled at me, then walked passed me and opened the door of the apartment.

"Shall we get going?" She asked. I nodded and she left the room. Plagg peeked his head out of my coat.

"You've got quite the girl." He muttered, as he gobbled down some Camembert.

"Yeah." I replied with a chuckle. "I know."


	53. Chapter 53

"So…" I said, glancing over to Marinette, "What do you want to do first?" We were starting to draw closer to the pond.

"The snowman!" she exclaimed, happily. "I brought everything we need to make one!" She unzipped the small bag she had brought with her. "I brought an extra scarf, and hat. A few buttons for the eyes and mouth… Oh, but we'll need a carrot for the nose."

"Does it have to be a carrot?" I questioned.

"Of course! What else would it be? It's not a snowman without a carrot nose!" Marinette closed the bag. "Maybe there's a corner store around here?" She looked around the streets.

"I don't think there will be one over in this-"

"Found one!" Marinette raced toward a large brick building. She entered the store quickly. I followed her.

The store was pretty small, about the size of Marinette's bakery, but held a variety of objects. From fresh fruit and vegetables to candy, to small trinkets that lined the window and the counter that held the cash register. It was an odd store, but I figured that it was one of those shops that try to drag in tourists.

Marinette was on the other side of the shop, looking over a large stack of carrots. I was about to go over to her when something sitting in the window caught my eye.

It was a tiny stuffed hamster on a colorful key chain. The hamster itself was white, just like the snow, and it had two light blue eyes. It was adorable. I quickly glanced over to Marinette. She was still looking through the carrots, with her back to me. I grabbed the keychain and went up to the man who stood behind the cash register.

"Found it!" Marinette exclaimed, pulling out a carrot from the stack. She looked at it all over. "Yep! This is the one!"

I paid for the keychain and shoved it into the pocket of my coat as Marinette made her way over to the counter.

"What was that?" She asked, curiously.

"Huh? Oh, nothing." I muttered. "Is that the one you want?" I gestured toward the carrot.

"Yep!" She placed it onto the counter and I paid for it. We then left the store and continued to walk to the pond.

Once we got there, we noticed there were already a number of adults with small children on the pond and playing in the snow.

"There are more people here than I thought there would be." I said.

"Yeah, but I doubt any of them will notice us." Marinette replied, "Come on, let's find a spot!" She began to race down the hill, I cautiously followed her, pulling up the collar of my jacket as I did.

Marinette suddenly stopped in a fairly open area and sank down to the ground and started to scoop up snow into a small pile. I joined her and started to push snow in her direction. Once the pile was big enough we started to roll it around the ground.

Eventually, we had three different sized snow balls. One was very large and heavy, the next wasn't as big but was still had a bit of weight to it, and the final one was much smaller than the first and was fairly light. I helped Marinette move the medium sized snowball onto the larger snowball, then I stook the smaller one and placed it on top of both of them.

"Yay!" Marinette cheered, "Now comes the fun part!" She started to dig through her bag. She handed me the scarf and a few buttons.

I wrapped the scarf around the snowman's neck. I gently pressed the buttons into the snow, creating a nice smiling face. Marinette slid the hat on top and stuck the carrot directly in the middle of the face.

"And done!" Marinette took a step back and admire our work. "He looks great!"

"Yeah." I agreed, I then glanced toward the pond. Most of the people had left and the pond was completely empty.

"You want to go skate now?" I asked, as I fiddled with the keychain in my pocket.

"Sure!" Marinette pulled out two pairs of ice blades out of her bag. She handed me a pair and we put on them on and made our way to the pond.

We skated for a while, both of us gracefully gliding across the ice, however, Marinette tripped over something, causing her to fall into me and knocking me over onto the hard ice.

"S-sorry." She muttered, shifting her gaze away. A deep blush formed on her face. She attempted to get up, but I gripped her arm, which prevented her from moving. "A-Adrien?"

I sat up from the ice and gripped her chin. I slowly moved closer to her. I gently pressed my lips against hers. She was shocked, I could tell, but she soon wrapped her arms round my neck and pulled me closer. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few seconds, we pulled away from each other.

"W-w-what was that?" Marinette whispered, her face flushed red as she moved her hands to my shoulders.

"That was our first kiss." I said, bluntly.

"Well… not quite." Marinette muttered, her eyes shifting away from me. This caught my attention.

What did she mean by that? Had she kissed someone before? Who was it? Was it someone I knew? Was it Nathanael?! I had to know.

"Y-you've kissed someone else?"

"What? No! That's not what I meant."

"Then what?"

"What I meant was that wasn't exactly _our_ first kiss. I mean it was, but not exactly."

"What?" I asked, again. She sighed.

"But, you probably don't remember that other kiss, huh?" She said.

"What other kiss?" Marinette giggled and brought herself to her feet. "What other kiss?!" I repeated.

"Nevermind." She said, teasingly. She started to move to the other side of the pond.

"Marinette! Tell me!" I quickly followed her toward the edge of the pond.

"Nope." She called back to me, laughing a bit.

"Marinette!"


	54. Chapter 54

I landed on the roof gently, then looked around the clouded night sky. Chat Noir suddenly landed across from me.

"Did you find her?" I asked him. Chat Noir shook his head as he came closer to me.

"You?"

"No, I lost her over by the Tower." I replied. "We have to find her."

"I know, but how do we do that? We don't even know what her power is." I let out a frustrated sigh. It was then I noticed Chat's ears twitch. "Wait." They twitched again. "Do you hear that?" I shook my head.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It sounds like… singing."

"Singing?" I questioned.

"Yeah…" Chat Noir looked around. "It's coming from that direction." He gripped my hand. "This way, My Lady." We hopped from building to building as Chat Noir followed whatever sound here was hearing. Eventually, the gentle singing made it's way to my own ears. It sounded angelic, yet somber at the same time. I felt a tug at my heart as the singing got louder. Tears started to form in my eyes.

"I hear it…" I muttered, quickly wiping away the tears befor Chat could see them. "It's...sad."

"Yeah," Chat Noir replied, his grip on my hand tightening.

Suddenly, he stopped. We had found the place where the singing was it's loudest. Both of us looked around the small roof of the building, then peeked over the edges. It was then we saw a tall, beautiful woman with flowing black hair. Her hands were folded in front of her and her eyes were closed as she sang.

"Is that her?" Chat asked as we continued to stare at her. The singing stopped. We turned our attention back to the woman, she still had her eyes closed but she lowered her hands. An eerie feeling suddenly surrounded her. I readied my yo-yo.

The woman looked up to us and, her eyes were surrounded by a black, butterfly shaped mask. She definitely was the Akuma we were looking for.

The woman opened her eyes and let out a powerful, bone chilling scream.

I quickly covered my ears as my feet were slightly sliding backward from the force of the scream. The woman suddenly flew up above us, let out another scream, and swiftly flew away

"Chat! We have to-" I turned around to see him still on his knees and covering the ears on top of his head. "Are you okay?!" He struggled to his feet.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." He shook his head rapidly. "My hearing's just a little more sensitive than yours. Come on, we should find her." We both started to follow the direction that the woman had gone off to. It wasn't long before Chat Noir stopped and covered his ears again.

"What's wrong?" I asked, noticing his painful expression. "Are we getting close to her?"

"S-she's still screaming." He replied, falling to his knees.. "It's so high pitched... It hurts…"

"Are you going to be okay?" I quickly dropped to his side.

"Y-yeah, I-" He stopped and covered his ears again.

"Chat, I think we should go home."

"What? N-no! We have to find that Akuma!"

"We can't do anything if she is causing you this much pain!" I replied, "We can go home, figure something out so we can prevent her from hurting you any further, and continue to look for her afterward. She hasn't done anything yet, so I don't think anyone is in danger."

"O-okay." He replied. As I helped Chat Noir to his feet, I started to hear the screaming coming closer to us. Was she coming back?

"You should get out of here." I said. "I'll hold her off until you get far enough away."

"No!"

"Chat, don't argue with me on this. Go!" Chat Noir slowly turned, covering his ears and jumped off the roof.

The woman suddenly appeared again, but instead of attacking me, she flew over my head in the opposite direction. I threw my yo-yo up to her.

My yo-yo wrapped around the woman's ankle, she pulled me through the air with her. I tried to drag her down but she suddenly yanked her leg back, causing me to loose my grip on the string.

I felt the rush of wind behind me. It took a second before I realized what was happening. By instinct I reached for my yo-yo. Only I had nothing to grab. I continued fall, as I desperately reached out my arms to try to grab on to something. Anything. I closed my eyes tightly and waited for the impact of the ground, but I suddenly stopped falling

I glanced up see, who else but, Chat Noir.

"Y-you caught me…" I muttered, breathless.

"Was there any doubt I wouldn't?" He replied, smiling down to me. "I've told you before, haven't I? I will never let you fall, Marinette."

"I thought I told you to leave!"

"Do you really think I would go home while My Lady, fights such a nasty Akuma?" Chat Noir gently placed me onto my feet."Now come on, we should probably go get your yo-yo back."

"What about her screams?"

"Don't worry. I have that covered. Literally." He pointed to the ears on top of his head. They were covered in some sort of white cloth.

"I don't see how that is going to help…" He sighed.

"Plagg said it is going to work. Trust him, okay?" Chat Noir pulled up the screen on his staff. "She's heading south of here. We should get moving otherwise she'll get too far away."

"Right." I replied. Chat Noir gripped my waist and extended his staff and pushed us off toward the direction where the woman had flown off to.


	55. Chapter 55

"Where is she going?" I asked as we continued to follow the small dot on Chat Noir's staff.

"No idea." He replied. "Woah, wait. She stopped."

"Where?"

"Just up ahead. It looks like she's just standing there. So, either your yo-yo feel off, or it could be a trap."

"Probably the latter." I replied, "We should be careful." Chat Noir nodded as we started to close in at the area where the woman supposedly was. I started to recognise the surrounding area, we were headed in the direction of the pond. The feeling of dread started to fill me as we finally got there.

 _Something bad's going to happen. I can feel it._ I thought to myself, as I snuck a glance at Chat Noir.

We landed in the snow gently, and tried to stay hidden from the woman. She stood dead center of the pond, not moving, not singing or screaming, just standing there. My yo-yo was still tightly wrapped around her ankle.

"Yep." Chat Noir muttered, "Definitely a trap. What do we do?"

"I have to get my yo-yo back before we do anything." I replied. "But how?"

"I'll get it back." Chat Noir suddenly stood up.

"What are you doing?!" I exclaimed pulling him back down

"I'm going to get your yo-yo back."

"No! I can't let you do that!" _Not while I have this awful feeling._

"I'm not as weak and useless as you think I am, Ladybug."

"What? I don't think that!"

"Yes, you do."

"No I don't!" I exclaimed, "We're partners, Chat!"

"Then start treating me like one!" I stared at him"You've always taken charge and I've been left to watch on the sidelines. Not once have you ever treated me as your equal!"

"Ch-Chat, I had no idea that's how you felt. I'm sorry." I turned away from him. "I just...I hate how you always throw yourself at danger without thinking about the consequences! I… don't want to see you get hurt at my sake."

"Marinette," He leaned in closer. "It's a knight's duty to protect his princess, isn't it?

"I-I suppose so but-"

"You're my princess, right?"

"You call me that, but-

"So, I'm your knight?"

"I guess, but-"

"Then, I will protect you. Both as Marinette, and as Ladybug." He stood up, again and I grabbed his arm.

"Be careful." I whispered.

"Have a little faith in me, will you?" He replied, with a smile. I released his arm and he went charging toward the woman.

Almost immediately, the woman let out a scream and caused him to go flying through the air. He landed roughly on the ice. I raced to his side.

"I thought I told you to be careful!" I exclaimed.

"You did." He suddenly pulled out my yo-yo from his pocket. I stared at him, utterly amazed.

"How did you…?"

"I told you to have faith in me."

"You Sly Cat!" I swiped my yo-yo from him and slipped it onto my finger. "C'mon, let's finish this."

Before we could move, the woman hoved above us. She let out another powerful scream, causing the the ice around us began to crack. Chat and I struggled against her powerful wind as we finally were able to get to our feet.

The ice beneath us gave away and we plummeted into the freezing water. The sudden shock caused my Tikki to reverse my transformation. The water felt like swords all over my body as I struggled to swim to the surface. I reached upward and was able to grip the ice and pulled myself up out of the water.

"Marinette! Marinette! Are you okay?!" Tikki exclaimed, flying over to me.

"Y-y-yeah…" I replied as I hugged myself. It was then I saw Plagg peek his head out from a pile of snow. I looked around, the woman was gone, but I couldn't find Adrien. "P-Plagg, where i-is Adrien?"

Plagg stared blankly at the large opening in the pond.

"Pla-Plagg?"

"He can't swim…" Plagg muttered.

"Wh-what?" I asked, not sure if I heard him correctly.

"He can't swim!" Plagg exclaimed flying directly in my face. "He can't swim, Marinette!" I looked at him in confusion.

"He can't…" My eyes widened as I finally understood. "Swim." I turned back to the opening. "Adrien!" I dragged myself back to the edge of the opening.

"Marinette!" Tikki exclaimed, "Don't-"

"I have to, Tikki. I can't lose him."

"B-but why?"

"Why do you think?" I replied, "I love him." I slid into the water

I couldn't see. The freezing water hurt my eyes when I tried to open them. I felt my heart jump to my throat. I wasn't going to find him at this rate. I had to, though. I couldn't let him drown. I swam deeper, hoping to feel something other than the piercing water against my skin.

My lungs were starting to burn and I turned back when I felt finger-like things wrap around my ankle. Startled a little, I reached down and grapped his hand and swam upwards as fast as I could.

I pulled us up over the ice, both of us letting out gasping coughs. I panted heavily as I dragged him across the remaining ice before collapsing beside him. He finally stopped coughing and peeked an I open at me. We both shivered against the ice.

"M-Marinette…" His voice was shaky as he reached for my cheek. "Y-you're c-c-crazy."

"I-I-I know."

"Marinette, please! You need to get up!" Tikki exclaimed, her eyes full of tears.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry, Ti-Tikki. I… I can't." I was starting to lose feeling in my arms and legs.

"But Marinette!" Tikki rested herself on my head. "Y-you have too." The tears started to roll down her cheeks, "Please. I-I can't lose you, too." Her sobs filled my ears.

"I-it's oka-okay, Tikki. There will b-be other Ladybugs…"

"No! None like you…"

"T-Tikki…" It was then I felt Adrien's hand covering my own. I looked over to him.

His lips were starting to turn blue, but he wore a small smile.

"A-Adrien?" I questioned.

"W-we're going t-to..." Adrien began, his eyes shifting downwards. He couldn't say it.

"Adrien, thank you."

"F-for what?" He asked.

"Everything."

"I sh-should be the one thanking you." He said with a slight chuckle. With the little strength he had left, Adrien gently pulled me into his chest. "I-I love you."

"I love you, m-more." I replied. His eyes widened his smile grew a little brighter.

"That, my princess, is impossible." A mix of laughter and crying sobs escaped his lips as he wrapped his limp arms around my body. "I-I'm sorry Marinette. I couldn't p-protect you, a-after all." His words fell on deaf ears as my mind was finally engulfed by darkness.


	56. Chapter 56

I placed my head against the large window that peeked into her room. I couldn't see anything in the room, the doctors had covered it with a blue curtain. They wouldn't let me see her. Because I wasn't a direct family member, because I was just "some kid" to them. Yes, I was just "some kid" to them, but not to her.

Maybe I didn't deserve to see her. It was my fault she was here in the first place. If only I hadn't let the Akuma catch me off guard, if only I had moved out of the way when the ice broke. If only I knew how to swim. She probably wouldn't be like this. Although, I was resting in a hospital bed not too long before that moment.

I could hear muffled voices coming from the other side of the window. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but judging by their tones, it didn't sound good.

"Adrien?" Plagg muttered, poking his head out of my shirt. "I'm hungry!"

"Can it wait, Plagg?" I replied.

"No!" He exclaimed. I sighed and hesitantly pulled away from the window. I turned and walked away from the room. I slowly made my way downstairs and to the hospital's small cafeteria.

"Do you think they have Camembert?" Plagg asked.

"I doubt it." I replied. Plagg groaned,

"But I want Camembert!"

"Can't you go one day without eating that stuff?"

"No!" I sighed heavily as I walked up to a woman who stood behind a counter.

"Excuse me?" I said. The woman turned to me. Her eyes scanned me for a second, then widened in sudden realization.

"H-hello." She said. "Ho-how can I help you?"

"Do you happen to have any Camembert?"

"C-Camembert?" The woman asked in confusion. "We might. Hold on a second." The woman suddenly disappeared through a door that was behind her. Plagg poked his head out of my shirt.

"She recognised you." He said.

"I know." I replied. The woman suddenly came back, a small, circular container in her hands.

"I found some!" She exclaimed, happily. She handed me the container.

"How much?" I asked.

"I'll take care of it." She replied. She then started to fidget where she stood. "I-if I could... Uh." Her eyes shifted downward and she started to shift through something behind the counter. She pulled out a blank piece of paper and a large black marker. "Have your autograph…" I let out a sigh.

"I don't like to sign autographs." I said. The woman looked downwards. "But, I guess since you are giving me free Camembert, I'll sign one for you." She smiled and I took the marker from her and scribbled my name onto the piece of paper.

"Thank you so much!" The woman exclaimed. I just smiled and turned around. I walked out of the small cafeteria and found an empty hallway where I sat down. I opened the container and Plagg flew out of my shirt and practically attacked the cheese. He ate the entire wheel of cheese in less than a minute. We then made our way back up stairs.

When we got there, I saw Marinette's parents speaking with a tall woman in a long, white lab coat. I waited for them to finish talking, and for the tall woman to walk away, before approaching them.

"How is she?" I asked Mr. Dupain.

"She's all 'll be released tomorrow night." I let out a sigh of relief. She was okay. "Until then, you should go home." His tone struck my heart. He didn't want me around her. If I were him, I wouldn't want me around her either.

"Dear." Mrs. Cheng placed her hand against her husband's arm. "Remember what Marinette said?"

"Yes, but-" Mr. Dupain looked back into the room.

"It's not his fault. Besides, one night isn't going to hurt." Mr. Dupain sighed, then nodded to his wife.

"All right."

"Adrien?" Mrs. Cheng turned to me. "Would you like to stay with us for the night?"

"I shouldn't. I've already caused enough trouble-"

"But, Marinette wants you to." I stared at her. Why did Marinette want me to stay with her parents?

"O-okay?" I replied. Mrs. Cheng smiled and gestured for us to leave. I slipped on my jacket and stuffed my hands into the pockets and realized I still had the keychain in my pocket. "Wait. Can I see her first?"

"She's sleeping." Mrs. Cheng looked back into the room. "But I guess you can go in for a few minutes." She stepped aside to allow me access into Marinette's room.

Marinette was laying in a long, uncomfortable looking bed. She was covered in a white blanket and was sleeping peacefully. I moved closer to her and watched her for a little bit. I took the keychain out of my pocket and placed it on to the small table that was beside the bed.

"Tikki?" I asked, looking around for her. The red creature appeared from behind the pillow Marinette's head was resting on. "Make sure she gets this in the morning, okay?" Tikki nodded and disappeared back into the pillow. My eyes slipped back to Marinette. I bit my lip. I gripped her hand and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it.

"I'm really sorry, Marinette." I muttered, "All of this… If only I was stronger." She didn't respond in any way. I placed her hand back down. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." I slipped out of the room and closed the door.

"Ready to go?" Mrs. Cheng asked. I nodded.

We turned and started to walk out of the hospital.

"Adrien." I looked up to Mrs. Cheng. She extended her cell phone to me. "You should call your father."


	57. Chapter 57

"He's in London for a fashion show! He didn't even know I was gone!" Adrien laughed loudly as he bit into a muffin. "Mmm! These are really good, Mrs. Cheng."

"Thank you, Adrien." Mom replied. "Are you feeling better, Marinette?"

"Yes, Maman." I replied, gripping a small hamster keychain in my hand.

"Good. Would you like some more tea, Adrien?" Adrien glanced toward the yellow mug that sat in his lap.

"Yes, please." Adrien handed my mother the cup and she turned to walk

"Marinette, would you like some more too?"

"Huh? Oh, sure…" I replied, staring into the empty cup. I quickly handed it to her and tugged on the blanket I had wrapped around my body. I sighed heavily as my mother walked down the stairs. I continued to play with the small keychain.

"Do you like it?"

"What?" I asked.

"The keychain. You like it, right?"

"Yes! I love it! Thank you." Adrien smiled at me. I looked back down to the keychain as I felt my smile fade.

"You okay?" Adrien asked, shifting slightly on the chaise.

"Yeah…" I replied. "So, your father really had no idea you were gone?"

"Nope. Nathalie went with him, so she didn't know either."

"What did you tell them?" I asked.

"That I spent the last few days at Nino's but he got sick. I went home, but was locked out so I came here."

"Sounds believable." I said.

"Mm-hm." Adrien finished off the muffin. "Your parents really do make the best food!"

"Yeah…"

"Is something else _bugging_ you?" I groaned and Adrien laughed.. "Seriously, though. What's up?"

"Nothing really. I just don't understand how your father didn't know you were gone."

"I already said that he and Nathalie are in London."

"It doesn't make sense though. We were gone for nearly four days. What about your fencing practice? Or Piano lessons? Or Chinese lessons? Wouldn't your instructors have called your father if you didn't show up?"

"They get paid whether they actually teach me or not." Adrien rested against the back of the chaise. "If I don't show up, it's less work for them to do. So, they probably didn't call my father."

"What about your bodyguard?"

"Gorilla? No, he lets me get away with quite a lot, honestly." Adrien chuckled. "Although, my father was really angry when I told him I was staying here, but there's nothing he can really do about it while he's in London."

"But what about when he comes back?" Adrien just shrugged.

"We'll see then."

It was then my mother came back up with two large mugs in her hands. She handed each of us one of the mugs and went back downstairs.

After finishing the second cup of tea, Adrien settled on the chaise and closed his eyes.

After a while, I stood up and covered Adrien with the blanket, and gestured toward Tikki and Plagg to follow me to the other side of the room.

"No one noticed he left? That's hard to believe." I said. Tikki nodded.

"Yeah." Plagg muttered, "He's typically under surveillance twenty-four seven. It's… odd." He then looked around the room. "You got any Camembert?"

"No." I replied. Plagg groaned and flew back over to the chaise where Adrien was sleeping peacefully. "I don't understand, Tikki. Why would his father just suddenly go to London? It doesn't make sense." I turned away from Tikki. "Do you think he could be lying?"

"Marinette, you're overthinking it." Tikki said. "Maybe a little sleep would help."

"You're probably right." I said. "But, you must be more tired than I am, huh? You did save our lives, after all."

"Oh, no I didn't!" Tikki replied.

"Had you not gone to get my parents, Adrien and I would have died of hypothermia."

"But, now they know that I exist!"

"That would be more of a surprise had they not known I was Ladybug."

"But… now they know that Adrien's Chat Noir! You guys said earlier that you needed to be more careful about keeping your identities a secret! Then I go and tell your parents about Adrien!" I quickly shushed her as her voice was rising.

"It's okay Tikki! They were going to figure it out eventually."

"But not with my help."

"Tikki, it's okay. I'm sure Adrien doesn't mind." I scooped Tikki up in my hands. "Let's talk about this more tomorrow, okay?" Tikki nodded. I made my way back to the other side of the room. I peeked down to Plagg, who was snoring on Adrien's head, then down to Adrien. I bent down and placed a kiss against Adrien's forehead, then immediately pulled away and blushed. I really hoped he was actually asleep. I quickly scurried up to my bed.

I placed Tikki on one of the shelves behind my bed, then snuggled up in my blankets. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.

The morning came quickly, and my sleep was interrupted by stomping feet and a slight scream. I opened my eyes and sat up to see what was going on. I peeked down to the chaise to see Alya standing in front of a terrified Adrien.

"Alya?" I questioned. She turned to me.

"What is this?!" Alya exclaimed, tugging Adrien by the collar of his shirt. "I thought you were sick! But no, when I come to check up on you, I see _him_ sleeping in your room!" She gestured toward Adrien with her head. "What the heck is going on?!"Adrien tried to squirm out of Alya's grip but couldn't break free. " _You_ aren't going anywhere!" She jerked him back towards her body. "Not until I get an explanation!"

"Alya, let him go." I said, sliding out of my bed and making my way over to the staircase.

"Not until you tell me why he's here!"

"I'll tell you if you let him go." I took a seat on one of the middle stairs.

Alya sighed, then released Adrien from her death grip. He stumbled toward the stairs and clung to them for dear life.

"You okay?" I asked him, stroking the top of his head

"Y-yeah." Adrien replied, looking up to me."She's scary when she's angry."

"I know." I let out a small giggle.

Alya suddenly gasped as her eyes went wide. Her eyes shifted to Adrien, then to me, then back to Adrien. She did this a number of times before an excited smile dawned her lips.

"No… way." She muttered. "No way! No freaking way!" Alya started to let out small, high pitched screeches. "Oh my god! Marinette! Why didn't you tell me?! Oh, I am so going to kill you!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked her.

"You! Him! You _and_ him! Gah! I can't believe you didn't tell me!" She suddenly stared at Adrien. "Does Nino know, yet?"

"Uh… No?" Adrien replied, questioningly.

"Yes!" Alya started to tap away on her phone. She then held it up to her ear. "You owe me fifty bucks!"


	58. Chapter 58

"Well, I guess this place is pretty bad luck!" Charlie said, jokingly, as he entered the bakery.

"What makes you say that?" I asked from behind the counter.

"I heard you just got out of the hospital." He replied, "Which means every employee from here has spent some time in the hospital!" Charlie began to laugh. "We should change the name to 'Bad Luck Bakery'!" I heard my mother laugh.

"Maybe we should!" She replied, appearing from the other room. "Good to see you, Charlie."

"It's good to see you too, Sabine." Charlie said. "You have anything for me to do?"

"Are you sure that you're well enough?"

"Ah, it takes more than a single bullet to take me down!" Mom laughed a bit.

"In that case, you can help Marinette finish displaying the pastries." My mother handed him a silver tray full of muffins. She then turned around to face me. "You don't mind him helping you, right Marinette?"

"Not at all!" I replied, happily.

Charlie came over to me and started to stack muffins in the display case.

"So, what were you in the hospital for?"

"Hypothermia." I replied simply.

"Really?!" Charlie exclaimed, "You okay?"

"Yeah. It wasn't too bad."

"How'd it happen?"

"Oh, Adrien and I went ice skating and the ice broke beneath us."

"Woah. I'm surprised you got away with only hypothermia. What about Adrien?"

"Oh, he's fine!" As if on cue, Adrien poked his head out from the back room.

"Hey, Marinette." He came out of the room holding a silver tray. There was massive amounts of flour on his face, in his hair, and all over the apron he was wearing. "We've got a cake for you to decorate!"

"Awesome!" I raced over and took the tray from him. "Y'know, you really don't have to do this."

"I don't mind. After all, your parents are letting me stay here until my father gets back from England. I might as well make myself useful." Adrien shot me a beaming smile. "Honestly, I didn't know baking was so much fun! I see why your father loves to do it!" He looked around the bakery when his eyes landed on Charlie.

"Oh, hi Charlie." Adrien said awkwardly, his eyes shifting downwards. "H-how… how are you?" Charlie just nodded to him and went back to stacking muffins.

I placed the small, round cake on the counter and pulled out a number of different colored bags full of frosting. I slowly began to drag the frosting across the cake. Adrien placed his hand on my back and moved closer to get a better look at what I was doing.

"You're really good." Adrien whispered.

"Do you want to try?" I asked him, extending the bag of frosting to him. "I'll help you."

Adrien hesitantly reached for the frosting, but was stopped by Charlie.

"Adrien, can I speak with you?" Charlie said. Adrien turned to him.

"Uh, sure…" Adrien glanced to me questioningly. I shrugged.

Charlie lead Adrien outside of the bakery, and I watched them from the window. It seemed like Charlie was saying something serious and Adrien was listening intently. Soon, Adrien's calm face soon turned into a scowl, and he started to talk back to Charlie, furiously. Charlie just crossed his arms over his chest and glared down to Adrien as he continued to speak. Charlie muttered a few things here and there, but what ever he said seemed to enrage Adrien more.

From what I knew, Adrien never got angry without good reason. So, as I watched them from the window I decided it was time to put a stop to their arguing.

I made my way to the door of the bakery, opened it and turned the corner.

"Hey, Adrien." I called, "Can you help me with something?"

Adrien turned to me, rage still in his eyes.

"Yeah." He muttered, roughly. Adrien walked over to me, gripped my elbow and practically dragged me into the bakery.

Adrien closed the door and leaned up against it. He took a few deep breaths, and released my arm. There was a small imprint of his fingers around my elbow. Adrien gave me a soft, apologetic stare.

"Are you okay?" I asked. Adrien's eyes slipped to the floor. "What did Charlie say to you?"

"It doesn't matter." Adrien pushed himself off the door.

"It's obviously bothering you…"

"Let it go, Marinette."

"Adrien-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" Adrien started to walk up the stairs, not once looking back to me.

I quickly opened the door to the bakery and went over to Charlie, who was leaning up against the wall.

"Hey."Charlie greeted.

"What did you say to him?!"

"What do you mean?" Charlie replied, innocently.

"You know what I mean! What did you say to Adrien?!" Charlie sighed and turned to face me.

"I just told him that I think he needs to stop hanging around you."

"What?! Why would you say something like that?!"

"Because. He's not the right type of guy you need."

"And how would you know that?!"

"I just do, okay?"

"But you don't know what he's like!"

"I'm just trying to protect you, Rosette!" I took a step away from him, and stared at him. "I-I mean, Marinette… S-sorry." Charlie shifted uncomfortably. "I-I need to go." Charlie turned away from me and immediately started to run in the opposite direction.


	59. Chapter 59

"Charlie really said that?" Mom exclaimed, placing a tray of warm muffins down. "That explains why Adrien ran upstairs the way he did."

"Yeah. What should I do, Maman?" Mom brought a finger to her lip in thought, then glanced to the muffins on the tray. "I mean, I understand a little of why Charlie said what he did, but it still hurt Adrien pretty bad.I don't know how to cheer him up."

"Well, he hasn't tried our mixed berry muffins!" She handed me one of the warm muffins.

"Food doesn't fix everything."

"Nonsense! Of course it does! Now, go." Mom shooed me away with her hand and I began to walk up the stairs to my room.

"Adrien?" I questioned, as I poked my head up to my room. "You up here?" The room was empty, but the hatch that lead to the balcony was wide open.

I slowly climbed up to the balcony. There I saw Adrien leaning up against the railing, intensely watching the cars below. Tikki and Plagg were floating around beside him.

"Adrien?" I asked. He didn't respond. I slowly made my way over to him. "Hey." I placed my hand on his shoulder and he glanced to me. "You want a muffin?" I extended the muffin to him. He stared at it, then took it gratefully.

"Thanks." Adrien muttered, then he took a bite.

"You okay?" _Stupid. Of course he wasn't._

Adrien just shrugged. I then turned to the two small Kwami.

"Tikki, Plagg. Could you give us a moment?"  
"Sure." Tikki replied, starting

"Aw, but I don't want to move!" Plagg whined. Tikki sighed, then grabbed Plagg by his tail and pulled him back down into my room. Things were quiet for a bit before I spoke up.

"Look, what Charlie said-" I began.

"That's not it." Adrien muttered, resting his elbows on the railing so that his hands dangled down the other side.

"Then… what is it?" His green eyes shifted to his phone that was in his hand.

"My father." He replied.

"What about him?"

"He came home last night. Nathalie's coming to get me."

"Now?!" I exclaimed. He nodded.

"I'm not ready to go home, yet. I can't" Adrien's grip tightened around his phone.

"Why can't you?" I asked

"I just can't…" His voice cracked a bit as he said this

"Adrien, tell me why." I said, placing my hand on his back.

"Because…" Adrien's eyes started to water over. "I can't stand the silence!" Tears flooded down his cheeks and he began to shake slightly. I gently wrapped my arm around him and pulled him close to me.

It took some time, but Adrien was able to gain his composure again.

"The silence?" I questioned, carefully. Adrien sighed.

"Marinette, your house is messy, warm, and your parents are loud and friendly. It feels like a an actual home." He pulled away from me. "My house is tidy, and cold. I never see my father and even with Nathalie, the house is silent. Completely silent. It gets annoying… it gets… lonely."

"Adrien…" I muttered.

"My father wouldn't understand. He can't see why I hate being at home, he doesn't know why I wanted to go to school so bad…"

"Have you told him this?"

"No!" Adrien shot back at me, "I just said he doesn't understand!"

"No, you said he _wouldn't_ understand." I replied. "But… Maybe if you try to explain to him-"

"No, Marinette." Adrien replied abruptly. "He won't-"

"You'll never know if you don't talk to him." I said. "I know you're afraid to speak your mind to him, but… this might be the only way, Adrien. Besides, you've done it before, haven't you?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You did it for me. When you were fighting with your father."

"How do you know about that?"

"Nathalie told me."

"Nathalie did?!" Adrien sighed and turned his attention back to the cars on the street below, then his eyes shifted up to the sky.

"If you were able to do that for me…" I continued, "Then you can do it for yourself as well!" Adrien grew silent again.

"Maybe… but I need more time to think about this."

"There's nothing really to think about. All you have to do is talk to him."

"That's easier said than done, Marinette." Adrien sighed heavily.

"What if I helped you?"

For the first time, Adrien looked directly at me.

"You'd really do that?"

"You're joking, right? Of course I would!" I replied happily. He chuckled a bit.

"Thank you, Marinette."

Before either of us could say anything else, Mom's voice echoed from somewhere downstairs.

"Adrien! Your father's here."


	60. Chapter 60

"Charlie?" I called, pounding on the white door. "Are you here?" There was no response from inside of the large house. I let out a small sigh as I reached for the circular shaped button beside the door frame. I pressed it once and a loud buzzing noise came from inside of the house. I took a step away from the door and waited, rocking back and forth on my heels. I held the small, circular container in my arms tightly. When there was still no response, I let out another sigh and turned away from the door. I began to walk down the stairs of the porch and onto the freshly fallen snow.

"Guess he's not home, Tikki." I said. Tikki poked her head out of my pink hat.

"Maybe we can try again tomorrow?" Tikki replied.

"I have to go back to school." I stopped suddenly as the thought having to get up early the next morning. I groaned loudly.

It was then a small dark blue car suddenly pulled up the long drive way. It parked by the large garage and one of the doors flew open and Charlie stepped out. He immediately noticed me.

"Marinette?" Charlie questioned, tilting his head to the side as he held a few large books in his arms. "Why are you here?"

"Maman wanted me to bring this to you." I gestured to the container in my hands. "She made some soup for lunch today… but...she made one serving size too much. She thought you would want some. It's still warm." Charlie looked at me in confusion for a second, then smiled.

"Thank you." Charlie walked over to me. "But… I can't really grab it…" He glanced down to the books in his hands.

"Oh, I'll bring it in for you!" Charlie nodded and handed me the key to the house. I walked up the porch, unlocked the door, then pushed it open. Charlie made his way into the house and I followed after him.

Charlie placed his books on a small table in the living room, then made his way to the kitchen. He came back with a spoon and took the container of soup away from me. Charlie lead me into the living room and settled into a large chair. I sat in one directly across from him. Charlie started to rustle through the books he had brought in as he slowly started to sip the soup as he studied.

I glanced up to the family portrait that hung above the fireplace. My eyes immediately went to Rosette. I felt my heart swell as her eyes stared directly back at me. I quickly looked up to Charlie's father, then quickly over to his mother. I noticed a large heart shaped locket that hang from her neck.

"Your mother's locket is beautiful." I said.

" Yeah, Rosette and I gave it to her for her birthday a few years ago. She keeps a smaller version of this portrait in it. It falls out occasionally, though." Charlie replied, not looking up from his book.

" Hey, Charlie. Where is Felicia?" I asked. Charlie stopped for a second, then looked around with a raised eyebrow.

"That's actually a good question…" He muttered. "Now that I think about, I haven't seen her in a few days. Not since her show."

"Her show?" I questioned. Charlie turned to me.

"Oh, that's right. You don't know. My mother was this really big performer back in America, where she's from. She worked on Broadway, actually. Well, sort of. More like off Broadway… Anyway, She's a really talented dancer and singer." My heart sank suddenly. "And she performs at small theater here in Paris a few times a month."

"Wait, did you say she was a singer?" I questioned

"Yeah, her voice is almost angelic, really."

"Angelic?" I repeated, my eyes widening. "There's no way." I quickly pulled out my phone. "Uh… Charlie I've got to go."

"Oh? Okay…" Charlie replied, suspiciously. I quickly said goodbye to him, and made my way out of the house, scrolling through my contact list on my phone until I saw a certain blond haired boy. I tapped on his picture and my phone started to dial the number. I held my phone up to my ear. It rang a good number of times before sent me to voice mail. I sighed, and tried again. And again, voice mail. This time I left a message.

"Adrien? When you get this, you need to call me back. I'm going after that Akuma."


	61. Chapter 61

I closed the door behind me gently before leaning against the door. I glanced around the barren room and let out a heavy sigh.

"You know," I muttered, "I hate to admit it, but it's kinda good to be home."

I slowly began to walk toward my bed as Plagg flew out of my shirt.

"I still can't believe you father came and got you!"He exclaimed loudly. His eyes then shifted to a small, circular container that sat on my desk.

"Me either." I collapsed onto my bed and groaned.

It was odd that my father came to get me rather than Nathalie. When I saw him, I was expecting some big lecture about how I shouldn't go anywhere without notifying Nathalie or Gorilla, but he was completely silent as he drove us home. That I hated even more than getting a lecture.

I sighed heavily and turned onto my side. It was then I noticed the screen on my phone light up. I sat up and reached for my phone. Before I could reach it, though, Nathalie called from somewhere in the house.

"Adrien! I would like to speak with you!" I sighed and shifted to my feet.

I slowly walked out of my room and down the hall to the small office that Nathalie had. I stood in front of her as she jotted things down on a small notepad.

"You have missed one piano lesson, two Chinese lessons, and one fencing lesson. I'm-"

"I'll make it up," I muttered, cutting her off. Nathalie let out a small sigh.

"Also, your father has-"

"Pulled me out of school? I know."

"No. That's not it. It's-"

"Nathalie, I'm sorry, but I'm a little tired, and I don't want to talk right now."

"Alright. But we are not finished sorting this out." Nathalie turned on her heel and began to walk away.

I made my way back to my room and picked up my phone. I saw that I had one missed call and one new message. I tapped on the message symbol to see a bright picture of Marinette. I tapped the small triangular symbol and held the phone to my ear as the message played.

"Adrien? When you get this, you need to call me back. I'm going after that Akuma." Those words echoed throughout my ears. I tossed the phone onto my bed and turned toward the large windows of my room.

"Plagg!" I exclaimed. "We need to go!"

"What? Why now? We just got back!"Plagg replied, holding his cheese close to his body.

"Plagg!"

"Alright, alright!" Plagg finished his small piece of cheese and was quickly sucked into my ring.

After the completed transformation I stuffed a number of pillows under the blanket of my bed and opened one of the long windows and pulled jumped onto the roof. I pulled up the screen of my staff and it immediately started to dial the number for Ladybug.

"Where are you?" I questioned, the second she answered.

"City Hall. The Akuma slipped in one of the back rooms."

"Don't move. I'm on the way." I quickly put my stuff away and jumped off my house and made my way to city hall.

I landed on the roof of City Hall and peeked into one of the windows. I immediately saw a red and black spotted bodysuit round a corner and hide behind a peeked over the corner of the wall and stared down the hall to a door down the long hallway.

I felt a smirk come to my lips as I opened the window and hopped down.

"Well…" I said loudly, "It's fancy meeting you here, My La-"

"Sh!" Ladybug pulled me against the wall next to her. "Now's not the time for that. We have to get in that room." Ladybug whispered, peeking out from behind the wall.

"Why?" I asked, utterly confused.

"She's in there."

"Who?"

"Felicia."

"Felicia? Charlie's mother?" Ladybug nodded.

"Why would she be in there?" She let out an audible sigh.

"Because, she's the Akuma."

"Wait, what?"

"There's no time to explain, we have to get in that room!"

"Isn't the only person with the key to that room the mayor? How are we going to be able to convince him to give us the key? I mean, we could tell them an Akuma is in there, but he'd probably freak out."

"That's true." She replied bringing her knuckle to her chin in thought, "There has to be someway we can get our hands on that key without alarming him."

Suddenly our eyes met with full intensity and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

"Chloe."


	62. Chapter 62

Chloe slouched on her large red couch as the glow from the incredibly large television lit up her face. She shoved her hand in a bag of popcorn before taking a handful and piled it into her mouth.

Chat Noir slid the glass door quietly as he made his way into the room. I was about to follow him in, but he turned to me.

"You… should probably stay here. I know how you can get around Chloe." He said.

Slightly offended, I opened my mouth to retort, but decided he was right and stood where I was as he continued to enter the room, closing the door behind him.

Chat Noir slowly snuck up behind Chloe and placed his hands on her shoulders, causing Chloe to jump and popcorn flew everywhere. After a quick panic, Chloe calmed down after she realized who it was. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck. I let out a heavy sigh, and quickly turned around and leaned up against the glass, ignoring whatever was going on behind me.

Eventually, Chat Noir came out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"Well?" I asked, a bit impatiently.

"She'll get the key for us." He said plainly.

"Seriously?!" I exclaimed. He nodded. "Awesome! Let's just hope that Akuma hadn't left yet."

"I'm pretty sure if she had, we'd be able to hear her terrifying voice." Chat Noir replied, "Well, at least I would."

Chloe suddenly pulled opened the door frantically.

"Chat Noir!" She exclaimed, then immediately noticed me. "Ladybug! Help!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, a bit shocked by her sudden panic.

"M-m-my…." Chloe started to breathe heavily.

"Chloe, calm down!" Chat Noir quickly gripped her hands.

"M-y…" She took a few shallow breaths. "My father's missing!"

"What?!" I asked, "Are you sure? Couldn't he just be at work?" Chloe shook her head viciously.

"We were going to spend the day together! T-That's why he took today off!" Chloe trembled as she spoke. Chat tried his best to comfort the girl. It was then that he pulled out a small silver key from her hands.

"What's this?" He asked, "The key we need?" She nodded.

"Then let's go!" I said.

"But…" Chat looked at Chloe, who refused to release him. "What about her father?"

I stared at him, then sighed and took the key from him.

"You look for the Mayor. I'll go take on the Akuma."

"Are you kidding?! No way! I'm not letting you do that!"

"Chat," I said sternly, as I leaned in closer to his ear. "Look at her. She needs her best friend right now."

Chat Noir glanced at Chloe again, then nodded.

"Be careful. I'll join you as soon as we find the Mayor."

"All right." I nodded as I tossed my yo-yo in the direction of City Hall. "I'll see you then."

I made my way all the way back to City Hall and to the locked room where I hoped the Akuma was still there. I placed the small key into the lock and turned it. I opened the door to see Felicia hovering over the Mayor.

I quickly pulled up my yo-yo and tried to call Chat Noir when the Mayor suddenly exclaimed, "Ladybug! Help me!"

Felicia turned to me, with a wicked smile on her face. She then picked up the Mayor by the neck and held him up in the air.

"Felicia!" I called, I tossed my yo-yo and it wrapped around her wrist. I pulled on the string in a poor attempt to get her attention. "What are you doing?! Put him down!"

"I want him to die!" She exclaimed. "Felicia! Stop this!" I exclaimed. "Let the Mayor go! He's done nothing to hurt you!" She looked at the terrified Mayor, then closed her eyes.

"He did, though…But," She dropped him, then turned to me. "You hurt me in the worse way possible, little miss Ladybug."

"What? What are you talking about?" I responded, losing my grip on my yo-yo and falling over.

"You…" Felicia muttered, hovering above me, "You killed my daughter!"


	63. Chapter 63

"Something's wrong." I muttered as the small screen on my staff continued to ring.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"Something's wrong. She isn't responding." I closed the screen on my staff and turned to the blond who was following me closely.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Ladybug isn't responding to me. Come on, we have to go."

"Wait! What about my father?" Chloe exclaimed.

"If we haven't found him by now, the best bet we have is that he's with Ladybug." I replied.

"But what if he's not! What if he's still around here somewhere? We haven't even searched the whole hotel yet!"

"Ladybug probably found him already. I have to go help her."

"Why?! Why are you choosing to help her? She's Ladybug, she can take care of herself."

"She may be in danger!"

"So may be my father!" Chloe argued back. "We need to find him."

"He's with Ladybug, I'm telling you!"

"You're being selfish, Adrien!" Chloe fired. I stared at her.

Chloe, of all people, was calling me selfish. How on earth was I being selfish? I just wanted to make sure Marinette was okay. "If we search the rest of this place, and he's not here, I'm going to find Ladybug."

"Fine."

We continued to search the hotel room by room, making sure there wasn't a single one that we had missed.

"See? I told you." I said, " I'm going to

"Are you sure? It might be dangerous."

"I just want to find my dad."

"All right. Come with me." Chloe and I quickly made our way out of the Hotel and over to the town hall.

We entered the large building through the front doors and climbed the stairs to the second floor. I looked around a bit, then quickly made our way up to the second floor and toward the room Ladybug and I were surveying earlier. As we got closer, I noticed something was a little off.

The door was wide open, and the tables and chairs were a mess, some even turned upside down. Chloe and I ran in the the room and looked around.

"Daddy!" Chloe suddenly screeched, as she raced toward a corner of the room where the mayor was sitting. She practically tackled him, still screeching with glee.

"Oh, Ch-Chloe." The Mayor muttered. He slowly pulled the girl away, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to save you!" She replied.

"Where's Ladybug?" I questioned, the mayor stared at me for a second and glanced around the room.

"That's odd. I thought she was here." He rubbed his head a bit before his face lit up. "Oh, wait, she left."

"What?" I asked.

"She left. With the other lady."

"She just left? Without a word?" The mayor nodded. Thinking that she had cleansed the akuma, I let out a relieved sigh. I pulled up the screen on my staff and called Ladybug.

I noticed a faint beeping noise from somewhere within the room. I turned around and walked over to the toppled table, where the beeping was a little louder. Curious, I started to searched through the table and chairs only to find a thin, red yo-yo laying on the ground.

"Mayor!" I called, standing up quickly, "Where did you say Ladybug went?"

"Hm? Oh, I don't know. She just left with the lady." He replied, holding his head. "Everything is still a little fuzzy."

"Do you know which way they went?" I asked, failing miserably at trying to hide the urgency in my voice. The mayor shook his head. I gripped the small, red yo-yo in my hands harder.

"Chat Noir?" Chloe muttered, looking up to me, as she helped her father to his feet.

"Chloe, take your father back home, I don't think you guys are in danger anymore." I quickly turned and raced out the door, ignoring what ever Chloe was yelling out to me.


	64. Chapter 64

"You're wrong!" I exclaimed, pulling against the ropes that held me to the chair.

"Shut up!" Felicia screamed, her voice causing pain to my ears. I shuttered. "To think I trusted you! To think I let you stay in my house! In her room! You! Her killer."

"Felicia, please! That's not what happened!" I replied, "You don't understand!"

"I said be quiet!" Felicia glared intently at me, pure hatred and disgust in her eyes. She suddenly froze, a quick pink outline surrounded her eyes. After a few moments, she blinked and glanced to the objects she held in her hand. "I guess I need to deal with you later. Right now, I have to make a quick delivery." Felicia turned and began making her way towards a flight of stairs.

"No! Come back!" I called. I heard a door open and then close soon after. I sighed and leaned back into the chair.

"She's gone. Tikki." Tikki appeared from behind me. "Untie me, hurry."

"Okay." She quickly disappeared out of my sight.

"What happens if Hawkmoth gets my earrings?" I asked.

"I don't know." Tikki replied. "But it can't be good."

The ropes suddenly fell into my lap. I tossed it onto the floor and stood up.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here." Tikki nodded as we made our way up the stairs. I placed my hand on the cool doorknob and turned it, only to find that it was locked. "Tikki."

"I'm on it!" Tikki quickly phased through the door. After a few seconds, I turned the nob again and the door opened.

"Thanks." I quickly closed the door behind me.

"We have to be careful. Felicia may still be in the house." Tikki whispered, quickly hiding in the collar of my jacket.

"Right." I replied. "Maybe we can stop her from leaving." I began to make my way through the darkness of the room.

"Marinette, I don't think that's a good idea."

"I have to get my earrings back."

"It's too dangerous. We should wait." Tikki said.

"Wait for what? If I don't get my earrings back, who will?"

"Chat Noir will." I stopped walking.

"I can't keep relying on him." I said.

"Of course, you can! He's here to help you. And you're here to help him. That's what teamwork is, you rely on each other when it's needed."

Suddenly, I heard heavy footsteps that were slowly making their way in my direction. I quickly glanced around the room, but I was unable to make out anything in it, much less find a place to hide.

The lights flickered on.

I froze, and slowly turned to the person who turned the light, only to see a familiar face.

"Ch-Charlie?!" I exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Shh. Come with me hurry." He reached for my hand.

"No!" I pulled away instinctively.

"Marinette, please. I must get you out of here." He replied. I backed away slightly. Charlie sighed. "Look, my mom hasn't left yet. If you want to get out of here without her knowing you need to come with me."

"But…" I began.

"We don't have much time. Let's go!" Charlie forcefully grabbed my arm and pulled me along with him. "I know my mom has taken something important from you."

"How-"

"I know what it is and I know what it does." He continued, as we came to a door. Charlie quickly unlocked the door and dragged me out side into the snow.


End file.
